Ronda Rousey had a lot of reasons to return to fighting 10 years after back-to-back losses in the UFC and ending her career on a win was a huge part of that.
But as much as Rousey clamored for the chance to finally face Gina Carano — a fight the UFC attempted to put together over a decade ago — her 17-second armbar submission win almost felt hollow when it was all over. For all the talk about Carano dropping 100 pounds to get in shape for the fight and spending months training under the same coaches
and fighters who work with former UFC champions like Merab Dvalishvili, she looked completely overmatched when the action started.
Carano gave up a takedown almost instantaneously and then fell into an armbar from Rousey that ended the fight just 17 seconds into the first round. Afterwards, Rousey retired from the sport again but this time she gets to go out on a win instead of two brutal knockout losses but fellow UFC veteran Matt Brown just doesn’t see how she can really celebrate that kind of performance.
“For me personally and I think I speak for a lot of people, there was no redeeming qualities for this card, in terms of making us [bigger] fans of Ronda,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I don’t like how she carried herself. I don’t like how she spoke. I think she’s a narcissist and I think she’s got a lot of mental issues and I think she maybe needs to go to therapy or something.
“If she said she’s coming back for money, I get it. You’re prize fighting. Come back get a bag. There’s no redeeming quality about winning this fight. You fought someone that hasn’t fought in 17 years. What are you proud of? There’s nothing to be proud of there.”
Brown says his problem with Rousey’s approach to her comeback started with the way she chose to promote the fight, which was mainly built around bashing her former employers at the UFC and then taking aim at other fighters like current bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison.
Of course, Rousey also spent a lot of time lobbing insults at UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell, who she effectively blamed for passing on the Carano fight when it was first presented as a possible matchup.
When it came to her actual opponent, Rousey could only gush about Carano as a person and they were much more likely to hug each other than get into a fiery faceoff before the fight.
“I think she’s just kind of a narcissistic person and nothing about this really felt good, in my opinion,” Brown said. “The whole thing with this fight card, I don’t think anybody would disagree that this whole fight card from beginning to end was kind of cringe as f*ck. Ronda was just the cringiest person ever with her [mean mugging] the whole time and looking so angry and all the buildup, all the shit she said leading up to it.
“Talking so much shit to Hunter Campbell and this kind of vengeful personality that she has and all this anger and frustration. You really just need to go to therapy. You need a friend and some people to help you just calm down. Learn some stoicism and shit.”
Brown had faith enough prior to the event to pick Carano to win but that was largely based around his belief that she had been training and staying ready for a fight even when she was putting most of her focus on her acting career.
The way the fight played out, Carano looked every bit the part of somebody who hadn’t fought or even trained much over the past 17 years.
In other words, Carano actually had very little chance to win and Rousey just overwhelmed her.
“Coming back and beating someone that hasn’t fought in 17 years, that was a good matchup for you even 17 years ago, you shouldn’t feel so great about that,” Brown said. “If you’re coming back for the money, cool, a lot of people do things for money and I respect that.
“Come back because you say you want to get a win, come on. What are we supposed to feel about that? Do we feel good for her? Just cringe from top to bottom.”
Prior to her return to action on Saturday, Rousey spoke about her contentious relationship with the sport after she left the UFC and how she wasn’t even sure she could attend an event without getting viciously booed by the crowd.
Part of Rousey’s problem after her final two fights in the UFC is that she largely just disappeared from the spotlight and never directly addressed the losses. Even in the buildup to her fight on Saturday, Rousey spoke often about leaving the sport off a win this time around but she rarely, if ever mentioned Holly Holm or Amanda Nunes — the two fighters who beat her in those back-to-back losses.
That’s why Brown believes Rousey missed a golden opportunity to make up for past mistakes when she was promoting the Carano fight but none of that seemed to happen.
“That’s what sucks,” Brown explained. “This was kind of an opportunity for her to redeem herself for the fans and for the community in general. She certainly did not do that at all. At least I felt that way. Maybe other people feel different. Maybe they see some redeeming qualities there. For me, I felt like it was the same old Ronda, the same old story we’ve heard a million times.
“To me it’s not interesting. It’s not interesting and it’s not fun. Some of the comments talking about Khamzat [Chimaev], it’s not interesting to me. She had it written down in her pocket. It’s not exciting. It does not feel authentic. I really think she’s a narcissist and she needs some damn therapy.”
With Rousey already retiring again with plans to grow her family with husband Travis Browne, there’s a chance she once again disappears from the spotlight when it comes to combat sports.
Rousey did tease her interest in continuing to work with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions in some sort of executive role but she promised her fighting career is over.
“We want to love Ronda. This was her opportunity — another of her thousand opportunities — but this was a huge opportunity for her to create a lot of love for her,” Brown said. “She could have gotten even more views if she came out all humble and just speaking properly and not making it about Hunter Campbell and the UFC. Not making it about trying to go out on a win.
“Who the f*ck is doing her [public relations]? She’s got the fame and the money, she’s got to have a f*cking PR person in her ear saying ‘look, just speak like this.’ Even if you fake it. Even if we can see through all the f*cking fake bullshit, you say it. Just f*cking say half right things. She just can’t do it.”
