Credit: Gary Miller/Getty Images

Watch: Ronda Rousey Says Undiagnosed Concussion Led To Infamous Holly Holm Loss

Originally posted on Ringside Intel | By Dana Becker | Last updated 4/4/24

Former UFC champion Ronda Rousey is reflecting on her career-defining UFC 193 loss to Holly Holm.

The defeat ended Rousey’s incredible run as UFC women’s bantamweight champion back in 2015. Now, all these years later, the Olympian is discussing it.

“My mouth guard was bad,” Rousey said (thanks to Yahoo! Sports for the quotes). “I literally came into that fight concussed.”

Rousey explained that she slipped down some stairs “already after all these years of concussions” while talking with Valeria Lipovetsky.

“Then I had an absolutely terrible weight cut, which means you have less fluid in your brain to protect it,” she said. “I was just trying to make it look like I wasn’t hurt. But I wasn’t there cognitively”

The concussions date back to her amateur judo days and continued throughout her short run in WWE.

Ronda Rousey Proclaims ‘I’m The Greatest Fighter’

Following the loss to Holm, Rousey would remain sidelined until a return in 2016 vs. Amanda Nunes. That fight, though, lasted under a minute and she would retire for good after.

The 37-year-old Rousey set numerous UFC records and won her first 12 fights. She became the UFC champion in 2012 and defended the belt six times before the loss to Holm.

“I know that I’m the greatest fighter that has ever lived,” she said. “But when it got to a point where I’d just taken so much neurological damage that I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Suddenly everything that I accomplished meant nothing.”

This article first appeared on Ringside Intel and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: