Copyright MMA Fighting
Ronda Rousey remains one of the most recognized and accomplished fighters in UFC history but she hasn’t exactly endeared herself to the masses since her final fight back in 2016. Most recently, the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion lashed out at fans and media for allegedly abandoning fighters and turning on them after losing. Rousey’s complaint was that MMA fans aren’t ride or die with their favorite athletes and instead only offer criticism after a loss, which she boiled down to the opinion that “you ain’t shit, you never were shit.” While those reactions certainly happen, UFC legend Matt Brown disagrees that the legends of the sport aren’t revered by fans and perhaps that’s Rousey just speaking from her own rocky reception after she retired from the sport. “I tell you what, Ronda, she has the mentality of a champion,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “She puts the chip on her shoulder herself. She has so much pent up anger, she doesn’t have a hard time going to that dark place. That’s why she’s such a competitor and it’s great for the competitiveness but she’s not competing anymore. “At some point, we’d like to see her go meditate or go do a DMT trip or do a yoga retreat or something. Just relax. People don’t hate you. I’ve said this before, we want to love her so bad. I think all of the fans, I’m kind of indifferent. I think most MMA people, media and stuff are indifferent but the fans, they want to love her. She is the best person at shooting herself in the foot ever.” At her peak, Rousey was one of the two biggest superstars in the UFC alongside Conor McGregor and her popularity was almost immeasurable when it came to mainstream exposure. But that level of attention also backfired after Rousey suffered a brutal knockout loss to Holly Holm in 2015 and she never addressed the fight while effectively disappearing for the next year. When she finally came back in 2016, Rousey got knocked out again when she faced Amanda Nunes and that was her last appearance in the octagon. Brown can’t help but wonder if Rousey never actually processed those setbacks and nearly a decade later, she’s still dealing with the internal conflict that came along with the way her career ended. “It seems like psychologically, she’s still caught up in that moment when she was fighting,” Brown explained. “She’s like ‘it’s f*cking bullshit, I should have won.’ I can sympathize with that feeling because I can go back to some of my own fights I lost and I’m like I did the stupidest f*cking thing or I know I shouldn’t have taken that fight. I was sick or I had a broken rib in a fight one time. Like what the f*ck was I even thinking? You get hate after the fight. People say you suck. That’s a fact. “But a few years later or months really, that’s the past what can I do now to move onwards and upwards? How can I keep getting better and onto the next thing? It’s like she’s still stuck in that moment. That highly emotional moment of losing and it’s a devastating, traumatic thing, don’t get me wrong. It takes a strong mind to get through it.” That said, Brown feels like Rousey’s inability to accept her past losses has colored the way people remember her and she’s only digging a deeper hole with these latest comments. “It’s projecting,” Brown said. “It’s a tragedy. I hope she finds peace. That’s the one thing we can say, I hope she finds peace in her life and accepts the way things are. “Go do some great things and inspire some new people. You’re going to die just like me one day and people are going to remember something about you. Right now, the way that you’re road is going, Ronda, what people are going to remember is that you’re a f*cking sore loser.” During that same interview with comedian Bert Kreischer, Rousey also decided to take aim at veteran UFC color commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan when she said “he’s not an expert, he’s a fan with an audience.” Rousey’s tirade mostly centered around the fact that Rogan never fought and so there’s only so much insight he could offer when it comes to fighting. For his part, Brown doesn’t totally disagree with Rousey’s assessment but he also knows it’s incredibly short-sighted commentary when discussing somebody like Rogan, who has spent decades calling the sport not to mention training numerous martial arts disciplines over the years. “I actually get where she’s coming from with Rogan — he’s not a fighter. Neither is Jon Anik,” Brown said. “I actually kind of get that part. I don’t why she’s hating on Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan is extremely knowledgeable. The fact that he never stepped foot in the cage, that doesn’t make him unknowledgeable. Now I do believe it is less knowledgeable than someone who has [fought] but it’s so strange to me. That’s not the guy to call out.” Brown argues that Rogan may not have fighting experience but that doesn’t negate what he says when talking about the sport. “He only has an opinion,” Brown said about Rogan. “Until you’ve done something, all of your beliefs are opinions until you’ve actually done it. You can’t say it’s a fact until you’ve actually done it. So I get the point where she’s coming from but again for one, you’re attacking Joe Rogan, which is the last dude that you want as your enemy. He doesn’t give a f*ck I’m sure but you don’t want to turn his crowd away, the biggest crowd in America. To disrespect him, it just doesn’t make sense either. “He’s been immersed enough in this sport and all facets of the sport with all facets of fighters to have a f*cking very educated opinion.” More than anything, Brown just wishes that Rousey put more thought into some of the things she says because right now it just feels like there’s a lot of leftover bitter feelings for how her career ended and it’s not a good look. “We want to love her. She just shoots herself over and over again in the foot,” Brown said. “This isn’t f*cking rocket science. No one f*cking hates you. No one dislikes you. No one abandoned you. “She could be twice the star as she was now. I guarantee she could be in movies. She went to WWE. She could be in movies. She could have the f*cking biggest podcast around. She’s well spoken. She just says the f*cking most ridiculous shit ever.”
