Prefer it or not, Ronda Rousey actually might have struggled to evolve as a fighter because of the tiring schedule she saved as one of many faces of the UFC throughout her peak.
That’s in accordance with lately retired UFC legend Matt Brown, who has been each a fierce advocate in addition to a critic of Rousey prior to now.
Not too long ago, UFC CEO Dana White claimed that Rousey’s incapability to maintain up together with her competitors on the finish of her profession was largely on account of her dedication to constructing the game, which allowed her opposition to spend all their time getting ready for her. Rousey successfully agreed with White, stating that in her UFC profession she needed to be “every little thing to everybody,” and consequently, “I needed to promote as exhausting as I educated.”
Whereas he by no means reached her identical stage of star standing, Brown headlined various occasions in his day, and he is aware of the commitments put upon a primary occasion fighter can’t even evaluate to the workload Rousey carried on the peak of her profession.
“He’s not fallacious in saying that,” Brown stated of White’s feedback on the newest episode of The Fighter vs. The Author. “I do have some sympathy for that. She put a heavy load on her shoulders. It got here out of nowhere that she wasn’t essentially asking for, wasn’t essentially anticipating. I do have some sympathy for that personally, or a minimum of empathy. I don’t essentially really feel dangerous for her for that. I feel numerous that’s truthful.
“That began attending to her head. She’s out selling on a regular basis. Look, after I would a do a media tour or do numerous interviews main as much as a combat, I might use that as a psychological reinforcement. They’d ask questions, and I might say constructive issues again and again, since you get numerous the identical questions. You employ that as a reinforcement. I consider she was most likely doing that. However she was saying issues that have been past truthful, which is okay to say it, however she really began to consider it. She’s doing a lot media, repeating that again and again in her head, then she began to consider it.”
Maybe the largest burden that fell on Rousey got here nearer to her fights when she actually ramped up her UFC commitments, which normally included interviews, appearances, and different promotional obligations.
As a lot as that will have prevented Rousey from coaching on the identical tempo as her opposition, Brown additionally factors out that UFC’s push helped remodel her right into a celebrity.
“UFC was most likely making her do about double, if not triple the media her opponents have been doing,” Brown stated. “So main as much as the combat, she’s bearing all of the duty of the media and her opponents are coaching. Possibly that’s problematic. However that’s additionally their job.
“That’s the UFC. They’re a promoter. That’s what they do — promote you. That’s actually their job. They made her numerous f*cking cash. They made her a celebrity.”
Brown says the truth of Rousey’s state of affairs isn’t only a proper or fallacious reply, as a result of each issues could be true relating to her fast rise and fall within the sport.
If not for the way in which she promoted herself and UFC, Rousey might have by no means turn into the largest draw within the sport alongside Conor McGregor. On the flip facet, Rousey’s time spent shouting from the rooftops might have stopped from her actually grinding within the fitness center, the place she had the prospect to turn into a greater fighter.
That’s why Brown backs the argument that Rousey most likely suffered as a lot as she gained from her superstardom, however White bringing it up now isn’t doing her any favors.
“Each cause turns into an excuse whenever you’re a fighter,” Brown stated. “You don’t must carry it up. I may offer you 1,000,000 excuses for each loss I received. You don’t must carry it up. It’s legitimate. It’s legit. It is perhaps an precise cause, however once more, when she says it, it turns into an excuse. It’s a sound cause. I’m not going to lie.”
Nonetheless, Brown watched sufficient Rousey fights to know that as dominant as she was at her finest, she nonetheless had some basic flaws in her recreation that have been finally going to be uncovered.
Whether or not she was doing continuous media to advertise the combat or spending each waking minute within the fitness center, Brown believes Rousey was nonetheless destined to lose to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes in her ultimate two UFC appearances.
“I feel even when she received to coach absolutely, I feel her losses — like, Holly Holm remains to be beating her,” Brown stated. “I referred to as it earlier than the combat. I used to be one of many few people who received cash on that combat. She’s nonetheless not beating Amanda Nunes. You’ve received to present credit score the place credit score’s due. Once more, it’s not essentially fallacious, however it’s additionally a simple out.
“Ronda was the Royce Gracie of girls’s MMA. Royce got here again, received his ass kicked by Matt Hughes. The game wasn’t even very developed at the moment, identical to ladies’s MMA. She got here again and fought Amanda Nunes. This ladies’s sport remains to be evolving. It’s what it’s.”
