LeBron James 'knows exactly how' Ronda Rousey is feeling right now
- from MMA Junkie on Jan 01, 2017
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Ronda Rousey is likely down, though it’s not exactly clear if she’s out – of the sport anyway. But one of the planet’s most recognizable athletes said he knows exactly what she’s going through.
In Friday’s UFC 207 pay-per-view headliner in Las Vegas, former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) fought for the first time since November 2015, back when she lost her title to Holly Holm, to take on current titleholder Amanda Nunes (14-4 MMA, 7-1 UFC) at the UFC’s annual year-end event.
Unfortunately for “Rowdy,” the 48-second loss at UFC 207 was another embarrassing setback for a fighter who was once one of the biggest and most dominant fighters in the sport.
On Saturday, though, Rousey got some words of encouragement from NBA star LeBron James. He said he faced similar criticism when he left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, where the team fell short to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2010-2011 NBA Finals.
“In sports, in general, they build you up as high as they can, put you on the highest mountain in the world, just to tear you down,” the three-time NBA champion, four-time MVP and two-time Olympic gold medalist told Ohio.com (hat tip: FTW). “That’s coming from somebody who has experienced it. And that’s exactly what she’s going through right now. That’s a fact. I know exactly how she feels because I was that athlete. I went through that.”
Rousey has her fair share of critics. However, James, who’s won three NBA championships and three NBA Finals MVP awards since that runner-up finish in 2011, said those critics often focus on the recent future rather than the bigger picture.
“You don’t know her mindset,” James said. “You don’t know the drive. Is the drive still there? You don’t know. But you can tell that it’s built and built and built and built and built. They always make the teardown story more important than how long it took for her to actually get to the mountaintop.”
For more on UFC 207, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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