![]() ![]() Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report and is the author of Total MMA and The MMA Encyclopedia.The first time the baby opened her eyes, her mother, Krystal, knew she was different. But the nature of her fall makes everything that preceded it open to examination.ĭoes she truly belong among the greats? That's a question we'll all be grappling with for a long time. There's no doubt Rousey was an important fighter-historical even. Whether Rousey returns to the cage or not, fans and pundits will fiercely debate her legacy. Without her, mainstream women's MMA likely wouldn't exist. But Hall of Famer Dan Severn fought more than 40 times after receiving his Hall of Fame plaque-so no door is truly closed in the wacky world of combat sports. There's a finality to it, a clear message that you are now firmly part of the past. You'd think that induction into the UFC's Hall of Fame would close the door on her fighting career. "And I don't really think the same thing is necessary for fighting." "No one demanded a written resignation from me for judo," she told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres earlier this year (h/t MMA Mania's Jesse Holland). She's refused to formally retire, leaving the door open, if only a crack, for a potential return to the cage. When knocked down, Rousey never truly made it up off the mat.ĭeep down, though, you have to wonder whether Rousey has fighting fully out of her system. Ultimately, Rousey couldn't fully recover from her setbacks-at least not in a way that allowed her to continue her MMA career. " held me and let me cry, and it lasted two years. "I did a whole lot of crying, isolating myself," she also said. "She'd say, 'I want you to never entertain it as a possibility. Mind meld path of champions how to#"One thing my mother never taught me was how to lose," Rousey told movie director Peter Berg in a rare public appearance earlier this year (via USA Today's Martin Rogers). Things had come so easily for Rousey during her four-year reign of terror that the introduction of adversity left her badly shaken and in seclusion. A Ring magazine cover followed in October 2015, as did discussion of a bout with male boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. Commentators, such as UFC's Joe Rogan, began speculating that she could beat many of the men in her weight class.Īfter Holm, everything changed. Her success was so unprecedented, her dominance so far removed from what we expect from even the greatest champions, that Rousey almost seemed bored with it all.Ī grappling savant, she zeroed in on her striking game by winning three of four fights with knockouts that came with startling ease. ![]() ![]() Before Holm, her four previous title bouts lasted a combined two minutes, 10 seconds. Mentally and emotionally, however, Holm had rendered her unfit for further competition with a single blow. Mind meld path of champions professional#This wasn't the willing warrior whose body could no longer keep up with the demands of professional athletics. She was drummed out of the sport at age 29 and in good health. From Royce Gracie to Anderson Silva to the once seemingly ageless Randy Couture, Father Time inevitably won.īut this wasn't the case with Rousey. Even the slightest decline can be devastating. Rousey's is a sport where the difference between knockouts and glancing blows is measured in inches and milliseconds. In mixed martial arts, too, we've seen all our heroes made human. Even Muhammad Ali, the greatest of them all, was reduced to little more than a heavy bag for Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. This, of course, doesn't make Rousey unique. She left the sport a loser, broken mentally by Holm and sent to the lions a final time against current champ Amanda Nunes, shuffling to that inevitable execution with all the vigor of an athlete who knows she's been condemned before the contest even begins. In the end, that was the Rousey story, too. No such thing exists in a sport that often leaves one of the competitors devoid of their senses, reanimated in a pool of their own fluids, aware only that something has gone horribly awry. Other athletic contests allow for moral victories. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |