The rise of female fighters to prominence in the sport of MMA can be credited to Ronda Rousey. A UFC Hall of Famer, ‘Rowdy’ was arguably the first big female superstar not only in the UFC but also in MMA. However, her path to success was not a smooth one, as Rousey, like many others, succumbed to medical issues, especially concussions.

A concussion is one of the most common injuries suffered by combat sports athletes, and it can boost the development of long-term effects on an athlete’s body. Concussions appeared to have plagued Ronda Rousey’s career and she recently revealed her injury concerns in an exclusive story from ‘Cage Side Seats‘.

Ronda Rousey had concussion issues since her judo days

Rond Rousey’s concussion issues started troubling her long before she ventured into the sport of MMA. In over a decade of performing at the highest level and winning an Olympic medal in judo, ‘Rowdy’s experienced several symptoms that indicated how grave her concussion issues were. Rousey said, “I had a very rich concussion history before I even started in MMA. For my entire judo career, which was like 10 years, I actually was experiencing concussion symptoms more often than not for an entire decade.”

She also revealed that the frequency of getting concussed rises after the first one. As a result, the former UFC champion piled up a lot of concussion issues, which led to her having trouble absorbing strikes from her opponents inside the Octagon on more than one occasion. “Every single time you get one concussion, it’s easier to get the next one. And so I’d been compounding concussion after concussion after concussion for so many years that when I got into MMA if I got any kind of significant strike, I would be seeing stars, which is not normal,” Rousey added. ‘The Baddest Woman on the Planet’ also gave an insight as to how concussion led to her famous upset against Holly Holm.

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‘Rowdy’ opens up on the effect of a concussion in her fight against Holly Holm

Ronda Rousey’s retirement from the UFC was a rather unceremonious one. She suffered a devastating knockout loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193, which ended her winning streak. Rousey would suffer the same fate in her last UFC fight against Amanda Nunes with another KO loss.

In the interview, the Hall of Famer also revealed that concussion issues would not allow her to fight the way she does and things went really wrong really fast in her fight against Holm. Rousey further stated, “Usually when I fight, time dilates and I see everything in slow motion. This [the fight against Holly Holm] was like I was in like a fog where I couldn’t tell a range or anything.”

‘The Baddest Woman on the Planet’ mentioned why catering to brain injuries is important. It is hard to indicate when there is an injury in the brain, and there is nothing anyone can do to make the brain more durable. As such, decline is bound to take place in athletes, rendering them helpless. “Your brain doesn’t callous. It doesn’t get tougher. It’s just an inevitable decline and there’s nothing I could do about it,” Rousey added.

Rousey’s contribution to the sport of MMA is undeniable. Many people wonder what the female MMA scene would have been if not for the advent of te Olympian. But after giving her all to the UFC, she is now gearing up for the release of her book ‘Our Fight‘, and it remains to be seen what more revelations will come to light.

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