Ronda Rousey looks back on MMA career, admits she didn’t know how to lose

Now that Ronda Rousey is firmly established as a member of the WWE roster, she’s becoming more and more open about the pair of losses that ended her career as a mixed martial artist — losses she wouldn’t discuss previously.

The former UFC women’s bantamweight queen looked back on these losses, which were dealt by Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, during a Q&A session at the WildCard boxing gym in Las Vegas, which was hosted by film director Peter Berg.

“I did a whole lot of crying, isolating myself, [Travis Browne] held me and let me cry and it lasted two years,” Rousey said (transcribed by MMAJunkie). “I couldn’t have done it alone. There’s a lot of things you have to remember. Every missed opportunity is a blessing in disguise.”

“I had to learn from experience,” she added. “From the worst things, the best things have come as a result. Time is a great teacher. It’s that belief that time passes, even bad times.”

Rousey then explained that, while her parents instilled a championship spirit within her, they didn’t teach her how to lose. This, in part, is why she had such a hard time swallowing her defeats to Holm and Nunes.

“My parents expected me to be special, so I expected to be special,” Rousey said. “I was just trying to create the job I wanted, and I wouldn’t have the audacity to do that if my mom didn’t tell me I could.

“But one thing my mother never taught me was how to lose. She never wanted me to entertain it as a possibility. She’d say: ‘Let it suck. It deserves to suck.’”

Rousey also explained why she was so quiet with the media after her MMA losses.

“We live in an age of trial by Twitter,” Rousey said. “What is really gained by stating opinion on anything? It whittles people down. It gets cut and pasted 10 times and it’s in [a] headline…

“[Celebrities] keep more and more of [their opinions] to themselves,” she continued. “Why should I talk? I believe hearing me speak is a privilege, and it’s a privilege that’s been abused, so why not revoke it from everyone? I don’t believe public criticism beating you down is the right thing to do.”

Needless to say, Ronda Rousey seems to be opening up, now that her MMA career is in the rear-view.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/26/2018.