Ronda Rousey Reveals That He Was Crushed After Her Loss Against Holly Holm

Ronda Rousey never aspired to be anything less than the best. This mindset was instilled in her from a very young age. Initially, she aimed to be a swim champion, and later she followed in her mother’s footsteps to become one of the top judokas in the United States.

Ultimately, she realized her dream by becoming the first UFC women’s bantamweight champion and defending that title six consecutive times.

However, her reign ended abruptly when Holly Holm knocked her unconscious at UFC 193 in 2015. That marked the last time Rousey held a professional fighting title. Nearly nine years later, Rousey reflected on that moment and explained why the loss affected her so deeply.

“I cared about that title more than anybody ever has,” Rousey said during a Q&A on her recent book tour. “It hurt me more than anybody that’s ever been hurt by losing it. That’s why I was able to defend so much for so long.”

While losing that fight was painful, Rousey always knew it was a possibility—a price she was willing to pay to achieve her dreams.

She acknowledges that it’s difficult for outsiders to truly sympathize with the level of agony she endured after that defeat. While Rousey knows she’s not alone in feeling devastated after such a loss, not everyone operates at her level, making it hard for them to understand her pain.

“It’s hard for a lot of people to understand, to have something mean that much to you,” Rousey said. “It’s like, ‘Why are you so upset? It’s just a fight.’

Well, it’s just somebody else’s fight to you, but I think one thing that’s really important if you’re going to be a fighter at an extremely high level, or an athlete, or someone who runs a business, or anything like that, you have to be willing to get your heart broken in order to put every fiber of your being into something.

“You’re going to know whether everything you have is good enough. I think that a lot of people have this tendency to preserve themselves and not put everything out there, and when it doesn’t work out, you’re like, ‘Well, it wasn’t everything I had. I could have done it if I gave it everything I had.’”

Rousey’s willingness to sacrifice everything allowed her to become a dominant UFC champion, but that same passion drove her into a deep depression after the loss.

“It’s because I care that much,” Rousey said. “Caring more than the other person. Caring more than anybody else is an advantage, but it will be what comes back to bite you if it doesn’t work out.”

Following that loss, Rousey essentially disappeared from the public eye, a move that was intentional.

She didn’t want to see anyone or have anyone see her in that state. However, Rousey credits her husband, veteran UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, for pulling her out of that pit.

“It was a lot of crepes and chocolate and crying and World of Warcraft, and just not rushing it,” Rousey said of how she dealt with the loss. “I just allowed it to suck for as long as it needed to, but I also would have become a Golem cave creature if it wasn’t for my husband.

“He was like, ‘You need to go outside and get some coffee.’ I’m like, ‘There’s TMZ cameras,’ and he made me go outside and have all the TMZ pictures taken. He made me go outside and bite the bullet and get their damn pictures, because they were like camping outside my house for two weeks.”

Even after she ventured outside again, Rousey couldn’t escape reminders about the fight, her loss, or the knockout, but at least now she can talk about it.

“While I was getting my root canal because I got all my teeth knocked out, I was forced to lay there and watch TV, getting four root canals at once, and TMZ comes on blasting me going to get coffee,” Rousey said with a laugh. “Like, ‘Look at this loser getting her coffee!’ I was like, ‘This is hell.’”