Ronda Rousey No Longer A Top 15 Fighter
Ronda Rousey has had a rough four months following her devastating defeat at the hands and feet of Holly Holm.
She has been raked over the coals on social media. Replays of the kick that knocked her senseless have shown up on every sports-related show in the world. Criticisms have been harsh for her apparent demand for respect when she gave so little to her opponents.
And now, perhaps, the greatest insult of all — she has been knocked from the list of UFC’s pound-for-pound fighters.
This is a list that Ronda Rousey has been a mainstay on since first entering the UFC. The fact that she has been removed shows that the world’s most successful MMA fighting organization is on the verge of turning the page on her career — something Ronda herself could be considering.
Rousey showed some definite cracks to her tough exterior when she appeared on Ellen and broke down in tears admitting that just one loss in her professional career caused her to contemplate taking her own life.
When Holly Holm lost her first title defense against longtime Ronda Rousey nemesis Miesha Tate, you would think that an eager-to-fight Ronda would have been glued to the television scouting her competition.
Instead, she found out about the outcome when UFC President Dana White texted her the results of the fight. Her response? An unenthusiastic, “well I better get to work.”
Ronda is now behaving like a woman who is only going to fight because she is expected to rather than actually wanting to, and as Holly Holm has pointed out in comments reported by Fox Sports, “For me I want to keep fighting and if Ronda wants to come back and that’s her passion — great. If she wants to stay in movies — great. I think that I would rather meet someone in the cage when they’re passionate about it. I don’t want it to be because they feel like they have to or it’s expected or other people are curious about it. It’s Ronda’s life, I want her to do what she wants to do.”
Holm added that in her boxing career, Laila Ali was always looked at as someone who hung up the gloves while she still had more to give.
With Holly’s career coming into its own at that time, she used to be asked often about Ali’s retirement, with the questioners offering that they thought Ali should “stick around and prove this and prove that.”
“Well, if she doesn’t want to fight, I don’t want to watch her fight,” Holm said. “I don’t want to watch a fighter doing it that’s not passionate about it. So if Ronda wants to fight, awesome. If she wants to go onto different avenues of her life, great, whatever.”
The jury is still out on whether Ronda Rousey still wants to fight. Her words are saying “yes,” — though not very emphatically — but her actions are telling a different story altogether.
The first real test for Rousey’s post-knockout career will likely come towards the end of the year against reigning UFC Bantamweight Champion Miesha Tate.
She has beaten Tate twice — once at Strikeforce and once in the UFC. The first time it was a Round 1 submission; the second time it was a Round 3 submission. In both cases, the fights weren’t very close.
However, the Ronda Rousey that faces Miesha Tate a third time will be a changed Ronda Rousey, and while she may have enough gas in the tank to off Tate a third time, what happens after that? Win, lose or draw, her pound-for-pound days are likely over.
What do you think, readers?
Should Ronda Rousey give it up after the Tate fight? Should she even take the Tate fight? Sound off in the comments section.
[Image via Ronda Rousey/Facebook]
