Ronda Rousey on Dialing Back Interviews: 'Hearing Me Speak Is a Privilege'

WWE superstar Ronda Rousey doesn't talk to the media much anymore because she believes her words mean something.

Speaking to TMZ Sports about why she's scaled back her public interactions, Rousey said, "hearing me speak is a privilege."

"We live in an age of trial by Twitter," Rousey said. "What is really gained by stating opinion on anything? It whittles people down. It gets cut and pasted 10 times and it's in a headline. ... I don't believe public criticism beating you down is the right thing to do.”

Prior to Rousey's final UFC bout against Amanda Nunes in December 2016, she told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne she used to say yes to all media appearances to appease everyone: 

"I was just trying to make too many people happy. But when I try and do favors and make everybody else happy, at the end of the day, they walk away happy and I'm the one who has to deal with the depression. All the pay-per-views in the world, all the money in the world, it means f--king nothing to me because I lost."

Rousey began her MMA career with 12 straight wins before losing to Holly Holm and Nunes in back-to-back fights. 

The former UFC women's bantamweight champion made her debut in WWE at the 2018 Royal Rumble in January. She won her first bout with the wrestling company at WrestleMania 34 in a mixed tag team match with Kurt Angle, defeating Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.