Breann Lujan-Halcon
blujaha@uwyo.edu
I will be the first to admit that when former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was knocked out by Holly Holm in November, I jumped for joy. Everyone loves an underdog and to see the undefeated champion finally show signs of weakness, it was pretty enjoyable. That was when Rousey began to win me over.
I had rooted against her every opportunity I was given. I wanted to see her lose. She would pull off victories in 30 seconds or less. In women’s fighting, she was untouchable – until she wasn’t.
When Rousey was knocked out in UFC 193, she became a person- not an ultimate fighter, not a winner and not a loser, but a human. The fall from her pedestal of championships began there, and for Rousey, it has not stopped. Following her first loss was a fallout of trolling, a non stop instant replay of her head rocking against the mat and for Ronda, a bout of depression.
Rousey revealed while on The Ellen Show that she had struggled with suicidal thoughts following her defeat.
“Honestly … I was sitting in the corner [of the post-fight medical room] and was like, ‘What am I anymore if I’m not this?’ ” Rousey said to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. “I was literally sitting there thinking about killing myself.”
The 13-1 fighter shed tears on national television, proving to America that she was in fact not made of stone and that she was just like you and me. For the first time we saw a different side of the hardened and fearless fighter, we saw a soft side, a side we could relate to.
Often times we see these athletes splattered across all our televisions and our newsfeeds and forget the people inside the screen are real people too.
After the breakdown of the idea that Rousey was the stone cold, out for blood, undefeated fighter she appeared to be only months ago, she has slowly become an athlete I’ve grown to favorite.
It was her loss and now her resurgence that gained my vote. It is not the undefeated record that wins my heart, but the comeback instead.
“One thing that I learned and she should have learned a long time ago was that you have to learn how to lose before you can actually win,” former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar told SportsCenter “… You’ve got to be able to get back on the horse and this life is very precious and very short. One fight isn’t going to make or break her career.”
It may not be soon, it may not be the same again, but Ronda Rousey will return to the octagon, and when she does, I will be rooting for her.
