A current WWE Superstar has lashed out at those who choose to criticise the achievements and career of the current SmackDown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey.
‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey had a successful career in judo, winning an Olympic bronze medal at the Beijing Games in 2008. From there Rousey set about revolutionising mixed martial arts becoming a megastar in UFC.
She was crowned UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion when she signed with the company having held the same title during her time with Strikeforce. In her first twelve professional fights, Ronda Rousey was only taken past the first round once as she racked up a perfect record while headlining major pay-per-view events.
However, the train did come off the tracks for Rousey in November 2015 when she stepped inside the Octagon with Holly Holm. Holm outstruck her opponent and caused the first loss of Rousey’s MMA career. Rousey fought once more thirteen months later in UFC but this time Amanda Nunes caused a first-round stoppage consigning Rousey to only her second loss.
Despite her magnificent MMA career and her exploits in the world of pro wrestling, Ronda Rousey does have her detractors. Speaking with Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Rousey’s friend and fellow Four Horsewoman Shayna Baszler explained why the criticism of Rousey bothers her so much:
“Here’s the thing, I know Ronda enough to know that she does not spend her time on social media. Anytime she comments is because someone has said, ‘Hey, Ronda, you should comment on this,’ which isn’t often because she’ll still be like, ‘Why? Who cares?’ I get frustrated when it’s a little more selfish than that, I get frustrated if I ever were to speak out. If someone were to say something like, ‘Name the top three women’s fighters of all time.’ If I put Ronda in that list, immediately, they’re like, ‘Nope, she got exposed.'”
“Even now, it’s bothering me in a hypothetical. Just because she lost and you didn’t like her personality, you’re letting it cloud the fact that she changed women’s fighting. There would not be women in the UFC, at least not for a while, if it wasn’t for her.”
“To deny that she did great things, to discredit her just because she had a loss and you didn’t like her personality, I feel like if she had lost and then came on a podcast and been like, ‘I lost,’ and been super humble and not Ronda, not herself, people would say she’s the greatest ever, but because she lost and took it to heart and hated it, people hate her, so they have to discredit everything about it.”
“That’s annoying to me. I can say that I might not enjoy that Amanda Nunes beat Ronda and talked smack about her after, but I can say that Amanda Nunes is one of the best women’s fighters of all time. I can do that. It bothers me that regular fans can’t do that.”