Ex-UFC champion Miesha Tate slams Ronda Rousey for being more focused on ‘self instead of self-growth’
Miesha Tate holds no ill will towards Ronda Rousey. She just wishes ‘Rowdy’ felt the same way.
It’s been nearly eight years since Rousey stepped inside the Octagon. Still, the women’s MMA pioneer has found herself the subject of many a headline in recent months following the release of her latest book, Our Fight: A Memoir. And just as it was when she first left the UFC behind, Rousey has found herself the subject of widespread criticism with fighters and fans slamming the Olympian for constantly playing the blame game.
Recently, former UFC bantamweight queen Miesha Tate shared her thoughts on Rousey’s lack of personal growth in the years since closing the door on her combat sports career.
“I personally don’t have the animosity that I had for Ronda at one point,” Tate said on Sirius XM’s MMA Today show with Ryan McKinnell. “The disdain, the frustration, I’ve been able to work through those things and see my fault in it and try to be a better person.
“I wish that I could say that I saw the same growth from Ronda, but it doesn’t seem that way. It certainly seems that she’s holding onto the resentment, the frustration and the anger, and allowing it to dictate her next moves. I do not think the MMA community, in large part, ever turned their back on Ronda” (h/t MMA Junkie).
Tate doesn’t think Ronda Rousey was able to handle the Downside of fame
Tate was undoubtedly Rousey’s greatest foe, squaring off with ‘Rowdy’ in both Strikeforce and the UFC. The two were also featured as opposing coaches on the 18th season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Rousey was at the peak of her popularity in the sport, but she ended up rubbing a lot of fight fans the wrong way with her aggressive and overdramatic attitude throughout the season. More than a decade later, Tate believes nothing has changed.
“She forgot that there were hundreds of thousands of little girls around the world that were still idolizing her,” Tate said. “They didn’t care if she won or lost. They thought she was amazing either way. She doesn’t seem to have come to the point where I would like to see her be yet.“
“I think she’s still really hurt by it, but I think she’s very focused on self instead of self-growth. I think she’s still focused on, ‘Well, this is what happened to me, all these people turned on me, I had all these concussions happen to me, and nobody was thinking about me.’ It’s like, well, hang on, it’s not quite like that.
“People beat you down a bit. It comes with fame. Nobody gets away unscathed in life, much less if your life is put on a magnitude scale where everybody gets to witness your rise like they witness your fall. But it happens to every champion. This is not a Ronda Rousey vs. the world situation. It’s when you are great, sometimes people just want to see greatness fall.”
