Former UFC bantamweight champion Miesha Tate has publicly accused Ronda Rousey of lacking personal growth.
Rousey broke down barriers to become a UFC titleholder and sporting superstar before walking away from MMA after back-to-back KO losses in 2016.
During a recent media tour to promote her memoir ‘Our Fight’, Rousey revealed her MMA retirement was prompted by a previously unknown medical issue she was dealing with.
‘Rowdy’ claims to have been suffering from concussion issues since her days as an Olympic judo player, and says she was concussed heading into her KO loss to Holly Holm in 2015.
Those remarks weren’t received well by critics who considered her concussion revelation an excuse that tried to take away from Holm’s sensational performance.
Rousey also namechecked Joe Rogan as one of the MMA media members who turned their back on her after Holm and Amanda Nunes ended her career.
The 37-year-old hasn’t attended a UFC event since retiring and claims the reason she won’t go is because she’s pretty sure the crowd will boo her.
For Tate, Rousey’s recent comments highlight a flaw in her personality.
“I personally don’t have the animosity that I had for Ronda at one point,” Tate said on Sirius XM’s “MMA Today” show with Ryan McKinnell.
“The disdain, the frustration, I’ve been able to work through those things and see my fault in it and try to be a better person.
“I wish that I could say that I saw the same growth from Ronda, but it doesn’t seem that way.
“It certainly seems that she’s holding onto the resentment, the frustration and the anger, and allowing it to dictate her next moves.
“I do not think the MMA community, in large part, ever turned their back on Ronda.”
Tate got submitted by Rousey in one round when they first clashed for the Strikeforce bantamweight title in March 2012.
A year later, their rematch in the UFC ended similarly as Rousey tapped Tate with an armbar again, only this time it took her three rounds to get the job done.
That fight followed an extremely hostile season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ where the bitter UFC rivals repeatedly clashed on camera as they acted as opposing coaches.
Rousey made it very clear how much she disliked Tate, and ‘Cupcake’ is convinced that her old nemesis is still fixated on negativity all these years later.
Tate added: “She forgot that there were hundreds of thousands of little girls around the world that were still idolising her.
“They didn’t care if she won or lost. They thought she was amazing either way. She doesn’t seem to have come to the point where I would like to see her be yet.
“I think she’s still really hurt by it, but I think she’s very focused on self instead of self-growth. I think she’s still focused on, ‘Well, this is what happened to me, all these people turned on me, I had all these concussions happen to me, and nobody was thinking about me.’
“It’s like, well, hang on, it’s not quite like that. People beat you down a bit. It comes with fame.
“Nobody gets away unscathed in life, much less if your life is put on a magnitude scale where everybody gets to witness your rise like they witness your fall.
“But it happens to every champion. This is not a Ronda Rousey vs. the world situation. It’s when you are great, sometimes people just want to see greatness fall.”
News Summary:
- ‘Still really hurt’ – Ronda Rousey’s nemesis reignites rivalry by pointing out major flaw in UFC legend’s character
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