Ex-UFC fighter Brendan Schaub snaps back at Ronda Rousey’s ‘mind games’ accusation: ‘It was awful’
Brendan Schaub snapped back at Ronda Rousey after an excerpt from her latest book claimed that the ex-heavyweight standout played “f*cked-up mind games” during their relationship.
Before Rousey married another former UFC heavyweight fighter, Travis Browne, ‘Rowdy’ dated Schaub before the two inevitably parted ways. Interestingly, Browne and Schaub would go on to fight one another inside the Octagon in December 2014.
Rousey, who recently released a new book titled Our Fight: A Memoir admitted to reveling in Browne’s decisive first-round finish of Schaub.
“When Travis knocked him out at the end of the first round, I didn’t think it could get any more gratifying,” Rousey wrote.
Rousey also accused Schaub of being insecure and playing mind games during their time together.
Responding to the accusations on a recent episode of his The Fighter and The Kid podcast with Bryan Callen, Schaub denied Rousey’s claim, suggesting that if any mind games were being played, it was coming from her camp.
“But to bring it up 14 years later? I mean she has kids and it obviously worked out and like it’s just life, we weren’t a match so like when she says mind games, no it’s not mind games. The mind games came from, in all honesty, her camp like that was the trouble she had and that’s a whole other issue that she can address.
“I have nothing to do with that, I didn’t train at her camp, I don’t know the coach, I have nothing to do with that. I guess when she means mind games, that would mean it wasn’t a match so yeah and you were around during that time and you knew this. I’d be like ‘Dude, I don’t know what to do. Love the girl as a friend but when it came to that like dude, it’s just not, she’s not my person.’ I found my person” (h/t BJPenn.com).
Brendan Schaub reveals why he broke up with Ronda Rousey
Schaub also dished some details on the pair’s awkward split, insinuating that it was he who ultimately decided to end things with the women’s MMA pioneer.
“I had to have that conversation and it was awful,” Schaub added. “You just know. The last conversation, the last words I ever said to her, I just told her how I felt and it’s just not gonna work. Clearly, we’re both upset and I said ‘And you will never talk to me again, I know you and we will never talk again’, and we’ve never talked again.”
Two years after Brendan Schaub wrapped up his career following the loss to Browne, Ronda Rousey competed for the final time in mixed martial arts, suffering a brutal 48-second knockout loss to eventual two-division champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. ‘Rowdy’ has not strapped on the four-ounce gloves since.
