Towards the end of her stint in the UFC and the sport of MMA, Ronda Rousey went through a downward spiral after her 12-fight winning streak came to an end. The Baddest Woman on the Planet took some gnarly hits, prompting her to announce her retirement. Rousey claims to have had no idea about what was happening to her body until now, and that’s all thanks to Dana White.
It would be unfair to mention how Ronda Rousey faced criticism for the way she handled the end of her career. The Hall of Famer claims she had been feeling unwell when it came to her health issues. She couldn’t explain it to people at that time because the former bantamweight champion claims she “needed to figure out what was going on” before making any statements, and that’s where Dana White came into play.
Rousey claims the UFC CEO helped by introducing her to a neurological expert. And guess what? The study the doctors did on the Hall of Famer turned out to produce some results. As such, Ronda Rousey feels confident now that she’s able to share some concrete facts about what went down that led to her unceremonious exit from the sport of MMA. Rousey doubled down on her concussion claims, adding that migraines also bugged her at the time.
“Dana sent me to this long-term fighters’ neurological study, and they actually made some—I wouldn’t call them breakthroughs, but actually were able to diagnose a lot of the stuff that was going on with m,e and I guess still is,” Ronda Rousey revealed on the Untapped podcast. “He [the doctor] was saying that people that get migraines are actually more susceptible to concussions, and the more concussions that you get, the easier it is for these impacts to set off a migraine. And he was saying that not all migraines involve a searing headache, the headache part isn’t part of all of it.”
Moreover, Rousey also revealed that certain things like “bright lights and head impacts” cause her to get repeated headaches, and while fighting, she’d often lose her vision. This ultimately led her to retirement because the instances of such medical episodes kept getting more frequent, and Rousey wasn’t able to cope up with it while she was actively competing. “This was like, I had to retire because this kept happening to me more and more often to the point where I would get a jab and I would basically go blind,” she added.
Image Credits: Imago
Well, Ronda Rousey also mentioned the trigger point that led her to make the announcement from the UFC. Nevertheless, she’s now in a much better place, knowing that things will get better, eventually. Let’s take a look at that front.
Ronda Ronda reveals the exact moment she decided to stop fighting
Ronda Rousey got knocked out in both of her UFC losses, but after the last one against Amanda Nunes, she approached the doctor, who gave her an important update. Her family has a history of epilepsy, and this, according to her, exacerbated any other neurological damage to her brain. Rousey was of the impression that her family medical issues may have faded away, but when the doctors gave her their take on it, she decided to hang up her gloves for good.
“[The doctor] said what he thinks is happening is these impacts, now because of all the concussions, are setting off these migraine events, which is like my neurons get overly excited and then they shut down… I was like, I need to stop this or else I’m just speeding this up,” she further stated. Despite not being able to express the real issue back when she left the UFC, Ronda Rousey feels blessed to be in a position where she can now take care of her medical issues.
“Now that I’m kind of getting some help in diagnosis and stuff like that, I’m much more hopeful than I’ve ever been and instead of just being like, ‘OK, this is just part of it, I’ve just got to walk away before it gets worse,’ possibly there’s something I can do to make it better,” The UFC Hall of Famer added.
Ronda Rousey has made a lot of progress. From being one of the biggest stars in MMA to making waves in movies and even professional wrestling. People in the media may not agree with her, but no one can take away her accomplishments or what she did for women in mixed martial arts. In the meantime, please let us know what you think about Rousey’s recent revelation about her health problems in the comments section below.
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