Ronda Rousey reveals she felt suicidal after UFC bantamweight title loss to Holly Holm
The 29-year-old gave her first sit-down interview since November's bout to The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday
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Ronda Rousey has admitted to briefly feeling suicidal in the immediate aftermath of her shock defeat to Holly Holm.
The former UFC bantamweight champion, undefeated prior to the bout against Holm, was brutally knocked out by a head kick in her sixth title defence and subsequently hospitalised.
Rousey, whose meteoric rise through the UFC had made her the company’s biggest star, withdrew from the public spotlight after the defeat.
The 29-year-old gave her first sit-down interview since November’s fight against Holm on Tuesday’s Ellen DeGeneres Show and revealed how she felt in the hours after losing her title.
“I was sitting in the corner [thinking] like, ‘What am I anymore if I’m not this?’,” an emotional Rousey told DeGeneres.
“And I was literally sitting there and thinking about killing myself and that exact second, I’m [thinking] ‘I’m nothing ... what do I do anymore and no one gives a shit about me anymore without this.’”
Rousey emphasised that her feelings had been temporary. “To be honest, I looked up and I saw my man [Travis Browne, a fellow UFC fighter] was standing up there and I looked up at him and I was like, I need to have his babies,” she said. “I need to stay alive. I don’t know if I’d have made it without him.”
The bantamweight, who later suggested that the experience of defeat may have been a necessary evil that she had to overcome, also reiterated her desire for a rematch against Holm.
“Of course I want to fight Holly,” she said, when asked about a potential meeting. “I want to beat her.”
UFC president Dana White confirmed last month that Rousey will not fight at pay-per-view event ‘UFC 200’ in July and claimed that she had requested a break from the sport.
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