Helwani, Meltzer: Rousey character flaw kept her from being bigger still
Dave Meltzer: “If she had handled it like Daniel Cormier did, just as an example, I think Ronda Rousey would be the most popular female athlete in the country today.”
The Ancient Greeks figured out that a man’s greatest strength can also be a terrible weakness. That hasn’t changed in the ensuing millennia, and it applies equally to men and women.
Former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is the most famous figure in mixed martial arts history. However, MMA Fighting journalists Ariel Helwani and Dave Meltzer identify what they termed a character flaw that could have stopped ‘Rowdy’ from being bigger still. In her first interview since signing with the WWE, Rousey was asked to explain what went wrong in her losing fights vs. Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.
I think I’d just rather not talk about that right now,” replied Rousey after a long pause, hiding her face behind the palm of her hand.
The response left Helwani baffled.
She still can not speak about the losses, and to me — it’s hard for me to wrap my head around, said Helwani, as transcribed by Australia’s News.com. Week in and week out I see Daniel Cormier show up to press conferences and talk about his losses just as eloquently as his wins. I see Conor McGregor get tapped out and dust himself off. The fact that she still can’t get over these two losses to me just feels like a major character flaw. She’s still harboring these feelings like she’s not over it. She hasn’t moved on yet. I don’t know what to make of that, but I find that fascinating.”
Meltzer said the character trait cost her being the most respected female athlete in the USA.
Look what happened after she lost to Holly Holm, she became a different person, said Meltzer. “She went from being this person willing to do interviews and then she shut everyone off and everyone was her enemy. I think it hurt her greatly.
If she had handled it like Daniel Cormier did, just as an example, I think Ronda Rousey would be the most popular female athlete in the country today. Those losses would have humanized her. I think people wanted to like her.
She definitely turned a lot of people off because we all lose at something. We all have our disappointments and we have to get up. That’s just life.
It’s the same with her judo. She went to the Olympics and got a bronze medal at 21-years-old. She didn’t even step on a judo mat for a year and when she finally did step on a judo mat after two days she walked away and didn’t do anything until she found MMA.
It helped her probably to get to as good as she was in both of those sports, but that character flaw is what killed her from being a gold medallist in judo and it probably stopped her from being — as popular as she was — it stopped her from being far more popular with a far better career in MMA, making far much more money, getting far more endorsements and things like that.
