Ronda Rousey hasn’t competed in mixed martial arts in nearly eight years, but she can still create a stir in her old stomping grounds.
Valeria Lipovetsky recently interviewed Rousey on the latter’s YouTube channel. You can watch the entire interview below.
The 80-minute interview went live on April 2 and has about 6,000 views, but an excerpt captured and posted on X by producer Jed I. Goodman went viral later that night with more than 2 million views.
During the interview, Rousey discussed her ups and downs in the UFC. The excerpt captures a moment when she claims she was concussed heading into her first professional loss against Holly Holm in November 2015, which she says was caused by slipping down the stairs.
According to Rousey, the effects led to her not being as sharp in the clash with Holm. Rousey also cited a “bad mouth guard” as one of the conditions that led to the loss.
The former UFC and WWE champion expressed “resentment” toward the fans because she says they turned on her after the loss.
Rousey is promoting her new book, Our Fight. During the interview and in the book, she also discussed her time with WWE, which she described as an “absolute s### show.”
The UFC Hall-of-Famer cited a history of concussions as the reason for her retirement from MMA at the age of 29.
The response to Rousey’s comments has been strong, as many in the MMA community have taken to X to express their take. USA Today’s Ben Fowlkes implied he cut the interview off after one of the more memorable portions of the segment.
Fowlkes dug in further with comparative analysis to the way other champions like Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes have handled their losses.
Longtime MMA journalist Jonathan Snowden spoke to his experience covering the sport and made reference to his acceptance of former champion’s delusional perspectives.
One of Rousey’s chief rivals, Cris Cyborg took a clearly sarcastic shot at the former champion with a tongue-in-cheek mention of the mouth guard issue.
The numbers support the virality of Rousey’s interview.
I spoke with a social media data strategist from ListenFirst, a social listening firm, who provided some analysis behind the engagement and sentiment of the posts that responded to the Rousey clip.
From April 2 (midnight PT11:59 pm— PT) to April 3 (midnight PT11 am— PT), Rousey was mentioned 4,992 times on X/Twitter (15% of original posts).
The mentions generated 8.1M public impressions from 3.5K unique profiles, which speaks to the overall reach.
According to the ListenFirst strategist, “the virality of the conversation is mostly attributed to Rousey’s recent public statements and allegations, including her comments on the podcast with Lipovetsky, which drew attention from a fairly wide range of audiences, including ABC, People, and TheScore). MMA Fighting authored one of the most popular posts, discussing Rousey’s claim of being concussed before fighting Holly Holm in 2015. Other key drivers of conversation include Rousey’s reflections on her sports career, her present endeavors, and notably, her allegations of inappropriate behavior by WWE Superstar Drew Gulak.”
Looking deeper at the data and examining the sentiment of the replies showed that, excluding retweets, 35% of the responses were deemed negative, another 38% were mixed or neutral, and just 27% were positive, per ListenFirst data.
“Conversation surrounding Rousey’s comments indicates a complex public perception that intertwines respect for her achievements with scrutiny of her claims and past conduct,” the strategist explained. “In response to Rousey’s claims about being “the greatest fighter that has ever lived,” users expressed a variety of feelings. Some took to defending her and her impact as a woman in fighting and wrestling, while others were skeptical of the claims.”
The following examples were provided. One user posted:
“WOW. I can’t believe she said this. Make no mistake Ronda Rousey did a TONNE for womens MMA and was an incredible fighter. But greatest that has ever lived? NOPE.”
Another quoted Rousey and followed the quote with a detraction: “I just know that I’m the greatest mixed martial artist that has ever lived.” I’m pretty sure Ronda Rousey is STILL concussed.
A third referred to Rousey’s WWE career in contesting her claim as the greatest fighter ever. “Ronda Rousey touting herself as ‘the greatest fighter that has ever lived’ would be a great gimmick for pro-wrestling, to be honest. The heat would be so unreal, which would inadvertently cause her to be a top heel because she actually thinks this bulls### is the truth.”
Rousey is on Royce’s Gracie’s level from a pure pioneering standpoint. What she accomplished and has meant for women in combat sports is immeasurable.
That said, some could argue that her inability to accept defeat and the inevitable criticism of failing when competing on the grandest stage is almost as sad as her accomplishments are significant.
It is feasible that concussions led to Rousey’s retirement from the sport of MMA. However, her legacy would be less complicated if it were not sprinkled with other elements that would be inevitably dismissed as excuses.
As it is, Rousey’s stance as a needle-mover is clearly still in effect as she dominated midweek combat sports talk.
