Sometimes it seems that the Internet exists solely to celebrate the failings and problems of famous people. Ronda Rousey learned that lesson the hard way in November.
Minutes after she was knocked out by Holly Holm and lost her UFC women’s bantamweight title at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, the head-kick knockout had been viewed tens of thousands of times and there were many who mocked her with glee.
Rousey arrived home in Los Angeles a few days later, hiding her face from waiting photographers, the extraordinary accomplishments of her career being ignored while many celebrated one night gone horribly wrong.
Rousey hasn’t fought since that night, and there is no timetable for her return. She recently had arthroscopic surgery on her knee, and it’s possible that she may not fight at all in 2016.
One could have gotten appealing betting odds on Nov. 15, the day after she lost to Holm, wagering that Brock Lesnar would be back in the Octagon before Rousey. Sure enough, though, Lesnar will fight Mark Hunt on July 9 at UFC 200, while Rousey still isn’t scheduled.
UFC president Dana White said he hasn’t spoken to Rousey since her surgery, but said he disagrees with the growing contention that we’ve seen the last of Rousey in the Octagon.
“I absolutely think she’s going to fight again,” White said. “One hundred percent, I believe that.”
Rousey was a star from the time she defeated Miesha Tate at UFC 168 on Dec. 28, 2013, in Las Vegas, but she really crossed over into superstardom the night of her fight with Bethe Correia in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 1 in the main event of UFC 190.
Some of the biggest A-list celebrities in sports and entertainment were tweeting about her that night and Rousey-mania was off and running.
Rousey won that fight in 34 seconds and it seemed as if she could do no wrong.
She was everywhere. She did everything. Sports shows. Entertainment shows. Magazine covers. Newspapers. Talk shows. She promoted herself, and her sport, relentlessly.
Not only did she do a lot – an awful, awful lot – of interviews, the vast majority of them were not just a recitation of memorized talking points. She gave interesting, witty and sometimes thought-provoking answers.
White said that the true extent of Rousey’s promotional effort isn’t well known, despite her notoriety.
“She wants some time off and just wants to chill,” White said. “She worked her ass off for three years. You saw her everywhere, but you don’t even have an idea of what she did. It got to a point where I’d call her and she’d pick up the phone and say ‘Yes,’ before she said hello.
“I’m not worried. Ronda has earned the right to do what she wants. She can take as much time as she needs.”
Her reaction to the loss remains puzzling, however. She has largely isolated herself from the media and, with very few exceptions, has done no interviews at all.
She hosted "Saturday Night Live," and appeared in a beer commercial that debuted at the Super Bowl, but media access to her was off limits.
The fact that she felt the need to hide her face after her loss is equally odd. The defeat to Holm did not erase the accomplishments she had up to that point.
The greatest fighters, the greatest athletes, lose. It’s part of sports. You compete at the highest level and eventually, you’re going to lose.
Rousey had nothing to be ashamed of for losing to Holm. Holm is an outstanding fighter and fought the perfect fight. She also had the exact style one would want in order to defeat Rousey.
Holm also was very well coached and those coaches, Mike Winkeljohn and Greg Jackson, devised the perfect game plan.
Rousey was good enough to defeat Holm on that night, even though as it turned out, she was never in the fight. She was the definition of a warrior; she battled and pushed forward even after being put out on her feet by a brutal forearm shiver from Holm early in the bout.
She kept attacking until Holm finally put an exclamation point on the greatest night of her life by landing the kick that finished Rousey and completed perhaps the biggest upset in the sport’s history.
Upon her return to Los Angeles, Rousey should have gotten off that plane and walked past the paparazzi with her hood down, sunglasses off and head held high. There was no reason for her to be embarrassed.
Sugar Ray Robinson, by far the greatest boxer who ever lived, was 40-0 when he lost for the first time. By the time he lost a second time, he was 128-1-2. He never hid his face, because he knew he was great and had no reason to be ashamed.
So, too, is Rousey. Her reaction to the defeat makes one wonder how mentally tough she’ll be when she comes back. Will she properly channel the anger and disappointment to come back better? Will she put the loss out of her mind and move ahead? Can she fix the flaws in her game that the Holm fight exposed?
Perhaps more significantly, now that the aura of invincibility has been lifted, will she ever have the intimidation factor going for her that she once did? Tate, her archrival whom Rousey beat in two title fights, now holds the belt and very much wants a third bout with her.
Tate has rebounded from those losses to Rousey to become a more complete, more mentally strong fighter.
Rousey’s decision to shun the media is understandable on some level. It can't be easy to handle the many requests when you ascend to the level Rousey reached.
It’s now more than eight months since the loss and Rousey still isn’t ready to talk about her fight career to any significant degree. Her lengthy silence leaves that nagging thought out there about whether she’s truly gotten past the loss.
But a single defeat isn’t crippling to a fighter’s career. It’s all in how a fighter deals with it. Rousey is dealing with her defeat very uniquely, but it’s apparently the same way she reacted when she lost in judo previously.
The loss to Holm can either be remembered by history as a blip, or as a defining moment of her career. The true sign of greatness will be the way she rebounds.
No one knows at this point how, or even when, that will be, though.
