At the peak of her career in the UFC, Ronda Rousey was arguably the biggest superstar on the roster alongside Conor McGregor and she appeared to be untouchable inside the octagon.
That all changed on a fateful night in 2015 when Rousey lost her bantamweight title at UFC 193 following a brutal head kick delivered by Holly Holm. She made one more appearance in the UFC just over a year later with that fight ending less than a minute into the opening round after she was bludgeoned with strikes by Amanda Nunes.
In her upcoming memoir titled Our Fight, Rousey reveals why she never really addressed that loss to Holm and it turns out that really came down to a decision to continue hiding her severe history of concussions that have haunted her since she was a judo competitor who eventually won a bronze medal in the Olympics.
“My concussion history that I had to keep secret for years so I would be able to continue to compete and perform,” Rousey said when asked to reveal something from the book that she never spoke about previously during an Instagram Live session. “That’s basically why I had to retire.”
Rousey says she suffered numerous concussions before she ever set foot in the UFC octagon but she couldn’t risk that information being leaked or there was a chance she wouldn’t be cleared to fight.
That played a huge part in Rousey’s decision to never truly face the consequences from her loss to Holm in 2015 because she knew that would lead to a revelation about her struggles with concussions. So rather than put something out there that could jeopardize her career in the UFC or even her future in professional wrestling when she joined the roster at WWE, Rousey just stayed quiet.
“I think that there was just so much to [that loss] that I couldn’t talk about it in the form of like an interview or an article or anything like that or there would be several filters between my words and people reading it,” Rousey explained. “So much had to do with having so many concussions when I was in judo before I even got into MMA, I couldn’t talk about it at all when I was doing MMA. Because it would literally put a target on my head and I might not have been allowed to compete any farther.
“Same thing with WWE. They have a complicated history with their performers getting concussions and it would be a bad look on them. So I felt like I really couldn’t talk about it at all. So I feel like this long form that I would be able to adequately address it.”
It turns out, Rousey walking away from the UFC really came down to her long-term health more than suffering back-to-back losses to Holm and Nunes.
“A really hard decision to understand but one that my body really made for me,” Rousey said. “I feel like this is the only way to really get that across in the best, most complete way that it’s not just a tweet and a headline short.”
Following the end of her run in the UFC, Rousey wasted no time shifting gears into her professional wrestling career where she quickly became one of the biggest names in the WWE.
The way she adapted her fighting style for pro wrestling amazed fans and critics alike as Rousey largely performed like a seasoned veteran rather than a first-time novice. Her initial run with WWE came to an end just over a year later as Rousey took time off to focus on her family and have a baby with her husband, former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne.
She eventually returned to WWE in 2022 but her second run with the company only lasted for 19 months before Rousey exited the promotion for good in 2023. Rousey then started making appearances at independent wrestling shows, which further cemented her split with WWE.
Rousey points the finger at two WWE executives as the main culprits behind her decision to leave the company while stating that she will likely never return there after the experience left a bad taste in her mouth.
“[The book reveals] how much of an absolute s*** show it is at the WWE,” Rousey said. “Because they can’t hold a sword over my head and hold me hostage with my own career. I don’t need anything from them and I don’t intend on going back so I can actually say everything that I think and feel where everybody else that is still held captive by their organization cannot.
“We were contractually held to 90,000 words and I was going to talk so much more s***, especially about John Laurinaitis and Bruce Prichard. But our editor said we had to streamline everything and not take a detour on, like, the ‘f*** these old bastards’ quest. There was a lot more to it but I had basically get down to the meat and potatoes in this.”
The two names Rousey mentioned both worked at WWE for many years.
Prichard is currently an executive director at WWE, while Laurinaitis was the executive vice president of talent relations before splitting with the company in 2022. It was actually Prichard who took over for Laurinaitis after his departure.
Rousey says she pulled no punches when discussing Prichard and Laurinaitis in her book, which she promises were the only people she had any real problem with at WWE. She tackled that subject when asked if her heated rivalries were real or fake in the organizations she’s worked for.
“In MMA, I originally just started [beefs with my opponents] for publicity but those other b****** did not get the memo and so they became personal,” Rousey said. “In WWE, it’s all fake, I love them. Except for Bruce Prichard and John Laurinaitis, they can go f*** themselves. That’s real.”
Rousey’s book hits stores on April 2 and she soon starts a nationwide tour promoting her memoir while conducting a Qandamp;A at every stop to address more stories from her past.
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