Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey will not be returning to competition despite any hope for a return from one of the sport’s biggest starts.
“Every couple years … the same rumor comes out,” Rousey told the Insight podcast. “It’s nice to feel missed, I guess. But it’s not happening. I’m not neurologically fit to compete anymore at the highest level. I just can’t.
“You just get to a level where the neurological injuries you take accumulate over time. They don’t get better.”
“Rowdy” Rousey who was once undefeated at 12-0 suffered with depression following a massive UFC 193 head kick knockout by now former champion Holly Holm. Rousey returned to action a year later to take on Amanda Nunes and suffered a brutal loss in that outing as well.
Following inactivity in MMA, she ventured into the world of professional wrestling where she became champion in the WWE.
The former Olympian who competed in Judo the majority of her life recently revealed that she has dealt with concussions from an early age.
“When I got into MMA, I had already had dozens of concussions that I trained through,” Rousey said. “Like, not even stopped for. So that was about a decade of having concussion symptoms more often than not. So, when I got into MMA, I was playing a game of zero errors. Then it got to the point where I was fighting more often than anybody. I had more outside of fighting responsibilities than anybody, and it just got to be lighter and lighter hits were hurting me more and more and more.
“I got to a point where I couldn’t take a jab without getting dazed, without getting concussion symptoms. It just got to a point where it wasn’t safe for me to fight anymore. I just couldn’t continue to fight at that higher level.”
