mma / News
Kobe Bryant Reached Out To Ronda Rousey After UFC 193 Loss
In an interview with USA Today, Kobe Bryant revealed that he contacted Ronda Rousey (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) following her women’s bantamweight title loss to Holly Holm (10-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) at UFC 193.
He said: “I sent her several messages, so yes, we have touched base. That’s what it’s about. It’s not about how you win. A true champion is about how you lose and come back from that. I told her, ‘It’s a beautiful thing.’ That’s what I told her. I said, ‘To be a true champion sometimes you have to get knocked down.’ It happens to the best of us. It happened with my Achilles (when I tore it), (Muhammad) Ali got put down several times – it happens to the best of us. I think the true mark of a champion is how you get up from that. If she goes through her entire career undefeated, she becomes this mythical figure that nobody can relate to. She got beat. We all get beat at some point or another in our lives. Now it’s a matter of how she bounces back from that. I think that’s what makes her a true champion.”
It looks as though Rousey will get back up from her loss. She recently returned to training in the gym and is expected to face the winner of Holm’s first title defense against Miesha Tate.