Quote: Don’t You Dare Take Away What Ronda Rousey Has Done

It’s no secret that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion and media darling Ronda Rousey has undergone an intense, scrutinizing backlash after her devastating headkick loss to Holly Holm in the main event of November 14’s UFC 193 from Melbourne, Australia.

Online haters have flocked in droves to heap massive amounts of criticism and venom upon ‘Rowdy,’ in her darkest hour, insisting that she set herself up for a great fall by simply overexposing herself in the media with endless appearances on countless shows, something they believe no doubt played a part in her loss to Holm.

Rousey was tentatively slated to take on Holm in a historic rematch at July’s blockbuster UFC 200, but with Holm now nearing a title fight with Miesha Tate at March’s UFC 197, it’s unknown if Rousey will be ready to return by July due to her injuries and movie obligations. But even with those roadblocks, Rousey will be back this year.

And one of her former opponents who also knows a thing or two about what Rousey’s been through in terms of world-level grappling competition thinks that all of the hate on Rousey is completely unwarranted. Sara McMann, whom Rousey finished in a mere 66 seconds at February 204’s UFC 170, told MMA Fighting she believes the endless criticism only shows that so-called MMA fans don’t fully understand what Rousey’s been through:

“As somebody who is an Olympic athlete, who is also an Olympic medalist and a tournament athlete, it’s completely insulting to me. It shows that people do not even understand what Ronda has actually done before.

“She got a bronze medal in the Olympics. That means she lost her Olympic dream, had her entire world crushed knowing she wasn’t going to be an Olympic gold medalist and she rallied the troops and came back and got a bronze. In a matter of hours, she got herself back together. That’s how you get to that level. It was really, really frustrating to me. Don’t think that she’s not resilient and she can’t adapt to those circumstances.”

As for their rematch, McMann thinks Holm is much more foreign to losing than she and Rousey are due to their Olympic and tournament backgrounds:

“No offense to Holly, but she’s probably more unfamiliar with loss than Ronda and I are. We’re tournament competitors and we’ve had thousands of competitions. Not 50-something competitions. We could do 50 competitions in a year. I’m not saying anything bad. But you have to look at how Ronda handled her previous losses to show how she handles loss and comes back.”

Seeming far from her usually intense and focused self, Rousey looked out of the fight against Holm, and later admitted that an early shot had her out on her feet. McMann noticed the difference, and firmly believes ‘Rowdy’ will be a completely different fighter the second time around, as the once-dominant judoka wont be looking to prove she can out-strike a former boxing champ:

“Did you see her?” McMann said. “Did you see her face? Did you see her focus in her eyes? Look at that and look at it compared to her highest level judo matches. Look at her other fights. You could see mentally she was different. Now, maybe Holly created that. Or maybe Ronda brought it into the fight. There’s no telling. Either way, she was different. But I can guarantee you it’s not gonna happen twice.

“This next one? That’s not going to be the fight that she’s in at all,” McMann said. “With Ronda more composed, she doesn’t have to be a better striker to beat Holly. Because Holly beat her and she definitely wasn’t a better grappler. I’m excited to see where this chess match goes. I think it’s going to be an unbelievable fight.”

Overall, McMann was incensed at the supposed disrespect Rousey has quickly gained after everyone was seemingly her biggest fan following her knockout over Bethe Correia at UFC 190. An Olympic silver medalist wrestler herself, McMann urged those doubting Rousey to acknowledge what she has already accomplished over a long and grueling athletic career:

“As an athlete, she has earned a certain amount of respect for what she’s already done,” McMann said. “Don’t you dare take that away from her. There’s a lot of blood and sweat and tears and surgeries for her to get where she’s gotten. Don’t discredit where credit is due.”