mma / News

Joe Rogan Says Ronda Rousey Losing Was ‘A Classic Tale’

December 30, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

– Joe Rogan recently spoke with bloodyelbow.com about Ronda Rousey’s loss to Holly Holm. Here is an excerpt from part one of a long interview…

I was shocked, but it does make sense, given the way she behaved sometimes and even her walkout song, I don’t give a damn about my reputation. She wears that on her sleeve. Not touching gloves with Holly Holm and yelling at her during the weigh-ins…there’s gonna be backlash if you lose. America loves winners, but they also love it when you’re a winner and you fall on your face. They just love it.

The Ronda Rousey story in a lot of ways is a classic tale. It’s a tale of a legend and a tale of falling into all of the traps that have come before that we’ve seen from famous celebrities and athletes. Everything except drugs…she fell for the distractions. When you’re an athlete, especially a combat sports athlete, that stoic existence, that singular focus on the task, is one of the most under-appreciated aspects of training and becoming a successful fighter.

I think, for sure, Ronda had that earlier in her career when she had nothing else to fall back on, but now, she’s just overrun with distractions. She’s overrun with accolades, too, and I’m guilty, 100%, of that. I’ve referred to her in a million different ways. Based on her performances and based on what I had seen from her, she was just this freak athlete that no one had ever seen before. Sports Illustrated called her the most dominant female athlete of all time. There were many, many awards that she was receiving, and many great titles that people were bestowing upon her. What she had done inside the Octagon was pretty spectacular.

We hadn’t really had a female champion on this level. We had Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg duking it out in Strikeforce, but that was much less popular and well-known, than when Ronda emerged as this gigantic mega-star in the UFC. So, all this confidence and hubris…just so much going on there that the distractions just had to be insane. The media requests, the movies that she’s doing; €”it’s not just a few distractions, it’s a lot of distractions.

When the walls came tumbling down after Holly Holm showed up in perfect condition with the perfect game plan, just locked and ready to rock, and put it to Ronda, the backlash was understandable. Like I said, people love a winner, but goddamn they love it when you lose, too. Especially people who aren’t doing well in their own life–€”oh my God do they love it when you fall flat on your face.

I’ve taken a lot of heat from internet folks, too. My Twitter exploded because of all the good things I’d said about Ronda, but I stand by those good things. What Ronda had done was nothing short of incredible. What she was able to accomplish inside the Octagon was amazing. What Holly Holm did, though, was amazing-plus.

MMA, in its essence, and I’m fond of saying this, so if you’ve heard it before, forgive me; I think MMA, at its best, is high level problem solving with dire health consequences. When you watch a head kick knockout, like what Holly put on Ronda, when she head kicked her that way…that is dire consequences in that she was not able to solve the problem that is Holly Holm. That was Holly’s extreme reward for being able to solve the golden puzzle that is Ronda Rousey. That’s what we saw in that fight, and I’m a big fan of high level problem solving.

When I watch a display like that, I think that it’s an incredible thing to see. For whatever reason, it’s slightly harder to watch a woman get head kick knocked out than it is for me to watch a guy in the same situation. I don’t know why, but there’s an extra tinge of shock to it. I’m trying to say this without sounding sexist, because I try not to be, and I don’t think I am. It’s not a judgement like saying women shouldn’t fight, because when they get knocked out, it’s more fucked up; that’s not what I’m saying at all.

One of my favorite boxing knockouts–€”I forget the woman Ann Wolfe was fighting (it was Vonda Ward), but it was this big, tall chick, and she hit her with this haymaker right hand–that was one of those knockouts where you just go like Chris Tucker from Friday, ‘DAMNNNN!’ It makes you lean your head back like, ‘Holy shit!’ When you see one of those, there’s just something extra weird about it, when you see a woman get knocked out like that.

I don’t know how many guys I’ve seen get knocked out, I’ve lost count a long time ago. It’s one of the weirdest things about my job, that I’ve gotten really used to watching people get knocked unconscious. Most people don’t get to see people get knocked unconscious on a routine basis, really close up, but I’ve seen some of the greatest fighters and some of the greatest fights of all time from just a few feet away. It’s odd to me that it’s slightly different when a woman gets knocked out.

article topics :

Joe Rogan, Ronda Rousey, UFC, Larry Csonka