UFC champion Ronda Rousey reveals traumatic medical consequences of fighting in the ring
UFC legend Ronda Rousey has revealed that she is still suffering with scary aftereffects of her career in the octagon.
Rousey, 38, cemented herself in UFC lore as the promotion's first female champion - a title she successfully defended six times before retiring in 2016.
Yet, it has now been over eight years since she last stepped in the ring, with her legendary UFC run ending in back-to-back losses Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm.
However, the former Bantamweight fighter has now confessed that even years later she still suffers with long-term medical consequences from her countless bouts.
Rousey, who welcomed her second daughter with her husband, former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, in January, revealed that she is sometimes struck with temporary spells of blindness.
'Two of my triggers (are) bright lights and head impacts—so I'd get hit and I'd basically lose big chunks of my vision and my depth perception and my ability to track movements quickly and make snap decisions, which is basically all the things that I need and I thought I have a concussion,' Rousey told 'Untapped.'
'I'm out on my feet, but I wouldn't be stumbling around. I didn't lose my balance. 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 explained that she consulted doctors on the medical repercussions of her career and is working to address the neurological issues.
Rousey reportedly blames the issues on a history of concussions dating back to her days competing in judo - long before her UFC career.
'I don't have any regrets or anything like that,' Rousey said. 'Fortunately, I have a lot more information now about what was going on with me. I just felt like I couldn't be honest about what I was physically going through without people feeling like I was making excuses for myself. I also feel like I didn't owe anyone any explanation especially if they were going to shit all over it. So yeah, I needed to figure out what was going on first.
'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 me and I guess still is. I just didn't have all the information at that time. So, I couldn't hand that information to me then to explain things better now, so no, I don't dwell on that at all. It was the best I could do with what I had.'
Rousey became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo by winning bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
She began her MMA career in 2011 with King of the Cage before shortly joining Strikeforce.
Nicknamed 'Rowdy', she won the Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight title in her fifth fight and fifth straight win as a professional MMA fighter. She kept the title up until the UFC brought out the promotion.
Upon acquiring the entire Strikeforce roster, Dana White crowned Rousey the UFC women's bantamweight queen—a title she successfully defended six times as her stardom took off to unprecedented heights.
She went 12-0 in MMA before losing to Holm via second-round KO with a head kick in 2015.
Over one year later, she was gifted a title fight in her UFC return before losing to Nunes in 48 seconds without landing a significant strike.
Following her legendary MMA career, Rousey had a successful five-year run with WWE that ended in 2023.
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