Ronda Rousey – “I’m pretty sure if I walked into the arena, I’d be booed”
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey says that she feels unwelcome at UFC events and has not attended one live since her final fight against Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in December 2016.
“Ask the MMA media [why what I gave wasn’t enough] — they’re the ones saying it,” Rousey told High Performance. “That I was a fraud, and I was hype, and I was exposed, and I was never anything and just lucky and all of these things, that I was ungracious, or I was a loser or every other thing that I just assume at this point because I don’t take the time to read it.
“Everything that could be said that was negative was said, and I feel really vilified by MMA media at this point and not really welcome back, which is why I haven’t gone to a UFC fight since [I left]. I’m pretty sure if I walked into the arena, I’d be booed. That’s how it feels.”
Rousey, 37, was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018, and transitioned to the WWE as a professional wrestler. Even while there, Rousey feels she wasn’t accepted 100%.
“I live it,” Rousey said. “I guess I wish it didn’t [bother me]. I gave them everything I had, and it wasn’t enough. But that’s why a lot of people don’t give everything that they have, because they don’t want to face it if it wasn’t enough. I realize it was enough for me, but not enough for people on the outside. But it really wasn’t for them.”
