Rousey: My mother never taught me how to lose
Ronda Rousey: “One thing my mother never taught me was how to lose. She never wanted me to entertain it as a possibility.”
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has spoken very little about the back to back losses that preceded her leaving MMA for new careers in the WWE and in Hollywood. She appeared recently at a public Q&A to promote the upcoming action movie Mile 22, and spoke candidly about what happened.
I did a whole lot of crying, isolating myself, [husband Travis Browne] held me and let me cry and it lasted two years, said Rousey, as transcribed by Martin Rogers for USA Today. I couldn’t have done it alone. There’s a lot of things you have to remember. Every missed opportunity is a blessing in disguise.
I had to learn from experience. From the worst things, the best things have come as a result. Time is a great teacher. It’s that belief that time passes, even bad times.
Rousey has been accused of being a sore loser, and she conceded that losing gracefully is not what she was raised to do.
My parents expected me to be special, so I expected to be special, she said. I was just trying to create the job I wanted, and I wouldn’t have the audacity to do that if my mom didn’t tell me I could.
But one thing my mother never taught me was how to lose. She never wanted me to entertain it as a possibility. She’d say: ‘Let it suck. It deserves to suck.’
Rousey has also been accused of shunning unfriendly media. She agreed with that one, too, and explained why.
“We live in an age of trial by Twitter,” Rousey said. “What is really gained by stating opinion on anything? It whittles people down. It gets cut and pasted ten times and it’s in headline.
“[Celebrities] keep more and more of it to themselves. Why should I talk? I believe hearing me speak is a privilege and it’s a privilege that’s been abused, so why not revoke it from everyone? I don’t believe public criticism beating you down is the right thing to do.”