Former UFC Champ: Ronda Rousey’s Behavior Was ‘Disgusting’
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans has had quite a difficult time in the Octagon as of late, now suffering two losses in a row after not having won a contest since 2013.
Evans suffered a string of injuries after his win over Chael Sonnen at UFC 167 that kept him out-of-action for nearly two years, before returning at UFC 192 in October of 2015 against Ryan Bader. ”Shuga’ would suffer a unanimous decision loss to ‘Darth’, before returning six months later and falling to Glover Teixeira after a grizzly first round knockout.
Now the former light heavyweight champ has decided to drop down to 185 pounds but has again found roadblocks in his attempt to get back inside the Octagon, as the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) and the Ontario Athletic Commission (OAC) have denied Evans licenses to compete.
While Evans awaits news on the future of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career, he was recently interviewed by MMA Alpha (via MMA Mania) to discuss Ronda Rousey‘s loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 last month (Friday, December 30, 2017). Rousey was defeated by UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in only 48 seconds, after ‘Rowdy’ had taken over a year of from the sport following her first professional defeat to Holly Holm in November of 2015.
Evans gave his take on the contest and stated that Rousey, similar to the lead-up to her bout with Holm in 2015, seemed rather ‘arrogant’ in the lead-up to her clash with Nunes. Something that disgusted the former 205-pound champ:
“You know where you step into that spotlight to have a great performance, you also got to understand you may not have a great performance and you got to understand that you may be criticized for what you didn’t do or what you could’ve done or whatever,” said Evans.
“Another part to that, is I think that she is not trying to be hung by the same words that she was last time. If you recall Ronda going into the fight with Holly Holm, she was uber-confident, she was almost disrespectful, you know? ‘No one can be champion as well as me’ and just her arrogance … it was kind of disgusting.”
After being knocked out for a second consecutive time much criticism has come towards Rousey’s head-coach Edmond Tarverdyan, who many believe the former women’s bantamweight champ should leave in order to better improve her stand-up game. While Evans applauds Rousey’s loyalty to her coach, ‘Suga’ urged her to think about herself first:
“I don’t knock her loyalty, but at the same time, as a fighter, you have to almost understand the fact that it’s great to be loyal to your coaches, but understand this one fact: The fact is this is your opportunity, this is your time to shine, this is your spotlight,” he said.
“At the end of the day, the coach can always have other fighters and always have another rise to fame. But, at the end of the day, if you don’t do what you’re supposed to and you say, ‘Well it was because of my coaches,’ no one cares about that. No one cares about if your coach made a mistake because it’s up to you, as the athlete, to say, ‘You’re good for me’ or ‘You’re not good for me’.”
Evans believes Rousey should have bounced around gyms to better herself, however, given her name and star-power she would carry a huge target on her back wherever she went:
“And I think, personally, maybe she should’ve bounced around. But, here’s the problem with bouncing around if you’re Ronda Rousey: You have a huge target on your back no matter where you go to and you almost don’t want to try out new training gyms because you don’t want to have to feel like the new kid on the block, and being the new kid on the block when you’re Ronda Rousey, it’s a huge target on your back.”
What are your thoughts on Evans’ comments? Were Rousey’s actions leading up to UFC 207 ‘disgusting’? And will she switch camps for a potential return to the Octagon?
You can check out Evans’ interview with MMA Alpha here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWLJq9vcga0&feature=youtu.be
