UFC reigning Ronda Rousey successfully defended her title six times until losing to Holly Holm in 2015.
The female star of martial arts Ronda Rousey37, said Friday In an interview with the BBC for hiding his concussions and injuries during his successful freestyle career in the sport’s number one organization in the UFC.
Rousey, who won Olympic bronze in judo in 2008, became the first woman to join the UFC in 2012 and was its first female champion.
The American, who dominated the UFC, successfully defended his title six times before suffering a defeat To Holly Holm, who knocked out Rousey with a kick to the head in 2015.
Rousey ended her freestyle career after suffering a loss as well For Amanda Nunes 2016.
The Holm loss made Rousey evaluate her career and its effect on her own health. It’s still hard for him to watch that match on tape.
– I can see with my own eyes that I am suffering from a brain injury that has been developing for decades. I suffered a concussion during the match. “I fell down the stairs and knocked myself out two weeks before,” Rousey said.
Rousey said that she had already suffered head injuries during her judo career.
– I had kept my concussions a secret for so long that it became part of what I did. After the Holm fight, I started to think that my brain has been damaged too much.
Rousey moved to the show wrestling organization WWE in 2018. She was told her brain was fine before her show wrestling debut.
– After that, I didn’t cry every time I lost my phone. I used to be sure I had CTE. It had weighed on me a lot, because my family has both Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and my relatives haven’t been hit on the head for years.
Rousey left WWE in the fall of 2023, but continues to work in show wrestling. She is the only woman to hold both the UFC and WWE championships.
Head injuries have been talked about more and more in sports and freestyle. For example, who ended his freestyle career in 2013 Julie Kedzie has told that he suffered from depression, hyperactivity, impulsivity and lack of sleep after his career. They are all typical CTE symptoms.
Former show wrestler and PhD in neuroscience Chris Nowinski says that most of the volunteers studied have had CTE brain degeneration.
– There are no 70-year-old UFC fighters yet, so we haven’t fully seen what we’ve accomplished yet.