Ronda Rousey reveals she suffered a concussion before iconic UFC defeat

The main star in the history of women’s MMA, Ronda Rousey was seen by many as unbeatable at her peak in Ultimate. In November 2015, however, Holly Holm shocked the world and, with an emblematic knockout via head kick, ended the unbeaten run of the organization’s then bantamweight champion (61 kg) at UFC 193. Almost a decade after the fateful confrontation, ‘Rowdy’ revealed that he suffered a concussion before the fight and claimed to be below his cognitive capabilities during the first loss of his career.

Promoting her next memoir, called ‘Our Fight’, officially released last Tuesday (2), Ronda admitted that the process that preceded the duel against Holm was one of the worst possible. In an interview with the YouTube channel ‘Valeria Lipovetsky’, the American judoka claimed to have suffered a domestic accident that would have compromised her brain resistance and ability to absorb blows.

“He was ‘out of breath’ standing during the entire fight. My mouth guard was bad. I literally I went into that fight with a concussion from slipping and falling down a ladder after all these years of concussions. Then I had an absolutely terrible weight cut, which means you have less fluid in your brain to protect it. I was trying to make it look like I wasn’t hurt, but cognitively, I was no longer there. I couldn’t think that fast. He couldn’t judge the distance. And just from that one fight, everyone thought, ‘Oh, she’s a fraud.’ I know I’m the best fighter that ever lived. But when I reached a point where I suffered so much neurological damage that I couldn’t take it anymore, suddenly everything I achieved didn’t mean anything anymore”, said the judoka.