Ronda Rousey Gets Knocked Out Again

Amanda Nunes pummeled Ronda Rousey, perchance into retirement. Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

All week long, Ronda Rousey had nothing to say. Her UFC 207 fight week public hush followed a twelvemonth of monastic silence in favor of time spent on a spirit quest. Equally all-time we tin tell—and but she knows for sure—Rousey was broken by her loss to Holly Holm in Nov 2015, her conviction shattered into a meg niggling pieces.

Afterward putting herself back together—or at least trying to as best as she could—she reappeared, physically looking but as we remembered. Maybe better. But for once, it was not her athleticism that was in question as much as it was everything else that makes up a fighter. Her ability to control emotion. Her confidence. Her reaction to being hitting.

Suddenly, the woman who was one time looked at as ane of the about dominant athletes in the world was a big question mark.

All week long, the UFC did what it could to put beyond the bulletin that Rousey was home. Dorsum in the job in which the globe came to know her. Fifty-fifty in absentia—Rousey refused to do standard pre-fight media—the promotion plastered the message wherever and whenever information technology could.

"She's back," it said, frequently in a manner that ignored or erased the actual women's bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes.

Take a look, for instance, at a tweet the UFC fired off to its 4.8 million followers almost an hr before the UFC 207 pay-per-view began. If yous merely glance at information technology, it appears Rousey is fighting herself. To some degree, she was.

Rousey disappeared from public view after being knocked out past Holly Holm in Nov 2015 and mostly stayed ghost until materializing in Las Vegas for fight calendar week 412 days later.

In the few times she had spoken, or that her words became public, it seemed as though the emotional furnishings of her devastating loss connected to haunt her. She told Ellen DeGeneres suicide had entered her mind. Dana White told Jay & Dan she felt betrayed past the media. A profile of her past ESPN's Ramona Shelburne suggested that Rousey had lost her motivation for fighting.

Until nosotros could see her, "She's dorsum" was only literal. Yes, we could prove she was physically there, but her performance? Her aura?

They are gone now.

Rousey might exist too, later a crushing defeat, a beatdown that saw referee Herb Dean mercifully save her after 48 harrowing seconds.

Rousey came to the muzzle with her game face on, merely it didn't last. Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

All this fourth dimension after her first loss, Rousey showed no improvements to the head motion issues that plagued her in her loss to Holly Holm. She was upright and available, almost inviting trouble, and Nunes obliged, battering Rousey first with a left claw that wobbled her, then with a serial of powerful rights.

Rousey showed tremendous heart in her loss to Holm and did then this fourth dimension likewise. She simply didn't do plenty to avoid the hammers heading her way. One shot subsequently another landed, and Rousey managed to stay on her feet, teetering and defenseless until the end. Then she stood there in a mixture of confusion, shock and defeat.

"I knew I was gonna vanquish the s--t out of Ronda Rousey like that," Nunes said in her in-cage post-fight interview, ice common cold like the performance that proceeded it.

It's hard to imagine Rousey coming back from that, a chirapsia even faster and more lopsided than the i that sent her into a tailspin last time around. She has options in Hollywood, she has businesses outside the cage, and she has money in the bank—she earned a $3 one thousand thousand guaranteed bag plus pay-per-view points, according to MMA Fighting.

More than importantly, peace is out there for her. She won't discover information technology in the cage and in the center of the storm that surrounds her.

The decision was barely read before Rousey started leaving the Octagon. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

It'due south clear Rousey can't stand the spotlight, that her pare is also thin for the criticism that comes with the fight game, even though the sport usually welcomes back the aforementioned vanquished fighters it once jeered.

It'due south a man response to hold disrespect close to the os, only it's hardly ever productive. Nevertheless, that was what was supposedly fueling Rousey, who went and then far as to trademark the acronym "FTA," (F--k them all, if y'all're wondering), a eye finger toward her critics.

Despite it all, the Las Vegas crowd was firmly in Rousey's corner at both the Thursday weigh-ins and Friday night's fight, trying to lift a rattled fighter to her one-time glory.

In contrast to Rousey, Nunes, once seen every bit a mercurial talent capable of far more than she had accomplished, came into the fight riding a wave of conviction. In succession, she had defeated four straight, with stoppages over Shayna Baszler, Sara McMann and Miesha Tate—the last winning her the title.

Armed with a powerful yet occasionally wild striking game and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Nunes brought the full complement of skills and physicality tailor-made to offer Rousey fits.

Every bit the fight approached, Nunes voiced respect for her opponent for paving the road and for giving her the biggest platform of her career. But privately, she had watched plenty Rousey video to meet the holes in her standup, the confidence that chipped away with each accident landed.

Information technology didn't take long for her to do the same.

All this time later, nil had changed. Rousey still had the holes in her striking that could be exposed. Her head was still upright. Her conviction could be cracked. She was mortal.

And most likely, she will process defeat the same style too.

If she disappeared for over a twelvemonth concluding time, maybe this time she never comes back. She has given enough to the sport already. She bankrupt the gender line and pulled iii divisions of women into the UFC behind her. She built a minor army of fans. For a time, she was ascendant.

That time is over at present.

"Forget virtually Ronda Rousey," Nunes said. "She'south going to go practise movies. ... That's information technology for her. For sure she'due south going to retire."

Rousey barely waited until the final consequence was read to leave the cage. She picked at her gloves, ignored the champion's parting words and walked down the steps, past the fans and media, and vanished.

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Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2684461-ronda-rouseys-disappearing-act-may-be-for-good-after-second-straight-loss

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