Ronda Rousey issues apology for the “most regrettable decision” of her life

Former UFC champion Ronda Rousey has delivered a heartfelt apology for sharing a Sandy Hook conspiracy video eleven years ago.

Prior to her title fight with Liz Carmouche at UFC 157 in February of 2013, Ronda Rousey shared a video on Twitter (now X) that questioned the legitimacy of the school shooting at Sandy Hook which left 20 children and 6 adults dead.

‘Rowdy’ received a ton of backlash for calling the conspiracy theory “interesting” and has now issued a lengthy apology for what she calls the “most regrettable decision” of her life.

The former UFC women’s bantamweight champion took to social media yesterday evening where she delivered the following lengthy statement apologizing for her “detestable” actions eleven years ago.

“I can’t say how many times I’ve redrafted this apology over the last 11 years,” Ronda Rousey wrote. “How many times I’ve convinced myself it wasn’t the right time or that I’d be causing even more damage by giving it. But eleven years ago, I made the single most regrettable decision of my life. I watched a Sandy Hook conspiracy video and re-posted it on Twitter. I didn’t even believe it, but I was so horrified at the truth that I was grasping for an alternative fiction to cling to instead. I quickly realized my mistake and took it down, but the damage was done. By some miracle it seemingly slipped under the media’s radar, I was never asked about it so I never spoke of it again, afraid that calling attention to it would have the opposite of the intended effect – it could increase the views of those conspiracy videos, and selfishly, inform even more people I was ignorant, self-absorbed, and tone deaf enough to share one in the first place.”

Ronda Rousey continued:

“I drafted a thousandth apology to include in my last memoir, but my publisher begged me to take it out, saying it would overshadow everything else and do more harm than good. So, I convinced myself that apologizing would just reopen the wound for no other reason than me selfishly trying to make myself feel better, that I would hurt those suffering even more and possibly lead more people down the black hole of conspiracy bullsh*t by it being brought up again just so I could try to shake the label of being a ‘Sandy Hook truther’. But honestly, I deserve to be hated, labeled, detested, resented and worse for it. I deserve to lose out on every opportunity, I should have been canceled, I would have deserved it. I still do. I apologize that this came 11 years too late, but to those affected by the Sandy Hook massacre, from the bottom of my heart and depth of my soul I am so so sorry for the hurt I caused. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain you’ve endured, and words cannot describe how thoroughly remorseful and ashamed I am of myself for contributing to it. I’ve regretted it every day of my life since and will continue to do so until the day I die.”

pic.twitter.com/JpBZ0R0VKr

— Ronda Rousey (@RondaRousey) August 23, 2024

Ronda Rousey concluded her apology with the following words of wisdom:

“It doesn’t make you edgy, or an independent thinker. You’re not doing your due diligence entertaining every possibility by digesting these conspiracies. They will only make you feel powerless, afraid, miserable and isolated. You’re doing nothing but hurting others and yourself. Regardless of how many bridges you’ve burned over it, stop digging yourself a deeper hole, don’t get wrapped up in the sunk cost fallacy, no matter how long you’ve gone down the wrong road, you should still turn back.”

Rousey (12-2 MMA) retired from combat sports shortly following her TKO loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in December of 2016.