Ronda Rousey took loads of onerous hits close to the tip of her time contained in the octagon and till not too long ago she had no thought the total impact the injury executed was having on her.
It’s been over eight years since Rousey final competed, along with her legendary UFC run ending with back-to-back knockout losses to Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm. Rousey, now 38, has often been criticized for a way she dealt with her departure from MMA. Following a surprising loss to Holm, Rousey disappeared from the general public eye for a 12 months solely to return and endure one other devastating loss by the hands of Nunes. It was the final time Rousey would struggle within the UFC.
In current interviews and in her memoir, Rousey blamed a lot of her well being points on a historical past of concussions relationship again to her days competing in judo lengthy earlier than she determined to compete in MMA. With the help of UFC CEO and shut good friend Dana White, Rousey has realized quite a bit about her lifelong neurological points, which stem from extra than simply concussion-inducing blows contained in the cage.
“I don’t have any regrets or something like that,” Rousey informed UNTAPPED. “Happily, I’ve much more data now about what was happening with me. I simply felt like I couldn’t be trustworthy about what I used to be bodily going by means of with out individuals feeling like I used to be making excuses for myself. I additionally really feel like I didn’t owe anybody any rationalization particularly in the event that they had been going to shit throughout it. So yeah, I wanted to determine what was happening first.
“Dana despatched me to this long-term fighters’ neurological research they usually truly made some—I wouldn’t name them breakthroughs, however truly had been in a position to diagnose loads of the stuff that was happening with me and I assume nonetheless is. I simply didn’t have all the knowledge at the moment. So, I couldn’t hand that data to me then to clarify issues higher now, so no, I don’t dwell on that in any respect. It was the most effective I may do with what I had.”
In accordance with Rousey, a historical past of epilepsy in her household exacerbated any newly occurring neurological injury from her dive into full-contact fight sports activities. It was an issue she thought had gone away when she was youthful, however chatting with a physician on the Cleveland Clinic supplied some actual solutions to what may need been mistaken along with her.
“He was saying that folks that get migraines are literally extra vulnerable to concussions and the extra concussions that you simply get, the simpler it’s for these impacts to set off a migraine,” Rousey mentioned. “And he was saying that not all migraines contain a searing headache, the headache half isn’t a part of all of it and so what we expect was happening was we type of ended up on this suggestions loop of the extra concussions I used to be getting the simpler it was to set off these migraines and so in these fights—go determine, two of my triggers is vibrant lights and head impacts—so I’d get hit and I’d mainly lose massive chunks of my imaginative and prescient and my depth notion and my capability to trace actions rapidly and make snap selections, which is mainly all of the issues that I would like and I assumed I’ve a concussion, I’m out on my ft, however I wouldn’t be stumbling round. I didn’t lose my steadiness. This was like, I needed to retire as a result of this saved taking place to me an increasing number of typically to the purpose the place I’d get a jab and I’d mainly go blind.
“[The doctor] mentioned what he thinks is occurring is these impacts, now due to all of the concussions, are setting off these migraine occasions, which is like my neurons get overly excited after which they shut down. So it might be a recreation changer as a result of there may truly be some options to it. Earlier than I used to be like, ‘Oh, it’s simply inevitably declined and I inevitably declined till I used to be shitting my pants. Nice. That is my life now.’ I used to be like, I must cease this or else I’m simply dashing this up.”
Previous to her remaining two fights, Rousey emerged as one of many greatest stars in MMA historical past, successful her first 12 professional bouts and defending the UFC bantamweight title six consecutive instances. Rousey additionally authored a number of memorable moments throughout that stretch, together with a run of title defenses by which she completed a number of of her opponents in below a minute. Following her remaining struggle in 2016, Rousey went on to a profitable skilled wrestling run with the WWE.
Rousey is now in the middle of consulting migraine specialists and neurologists to higher perceive her situation, and whereas it’s unlikely she ever fights once more, she’s optimistic that she will be able to enhance her high quality of life going ahead.
“Now that I’m type of getting some assist in prognosis and stuff like that, I’m rather more hopeful than I’ve ever been and as an alternative of simply being like, ‘OK, that is simply a part of it, I’ve simply obtained to stroll away earlier than it will get worse,’ presumably there’s one thing I can do to make it higher,” Rousey mentioned. “I simply didn’t have this data again then. I didn’t know what to say aside from there’s one thing happening with me and I can’t struggle anymore due to it.”
