Ronda Rousey Says Concussion History 'Forced' Her into 2016 UFC Retirement

Ronda Rousey is a UFC legend, but perhaps her career would have lasted longer if it weren't for her concussion history.

Rousey, who retired from mixed martial arts in 2016, said during an Instagram Live session that her history of concussions suffered in judo contributed to her decision to retire at age 29.

"I'd like people to understand my reasons and motivations behind things," Rousey said, per ESPN's Brett Okamoto. "I was forced to leave fighting when I was faster, stronger, more skilled and had a better understanding of the art than ever before. It was a really hard decision to understand, one that my body made for me."

Rousey, an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, was the first woman to sign with the UFC in 2012. She made her debut with the promotion in 2013 and finished her career with a 12-2 record.

The 37-year-old successfully defended UFC's bantamweight championship six times, but a 2015 loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, only contributed to her decision to retire.

Rousey suffered a second-round loss to Holm via head-kick knockout. Nearly one year later at UFC 207 in Las Vegas in 2016, Rousey suffered another loss to Amanda Nunes, also via knockout.

Rousey said she never discussed her loss to Holm in-depth because she felt she couldn't do so without bringing up her concussion history. She felt she had to keep that information private in order to continue competing.

"I think there was just so much to [that loss] that I couldn't talk about it in the form of an interview or article or anything like that, or there would be several filters between my words and people reading it," Rousey said. "So much had to do with having so many concussions when I was in judo before I even got into MMA. I couldn't talk about it at all when I was doing MMA because it would literally put a target on my head and I might not have been allowed to compete any farther."

Following her MMA career, Rousey spent time in professional wrestling with the WWE.

She won multiple WWE championships, including the Raw Women's Championship in 2018, two SmackDown Women's Championships in 2022 and a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in 2023.

Rousey was also inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018.