MMA fighter Ronda Rousey—out promoting her new Sports Illustrated cover—stopped by Ellen this afternoon to talk about her devastating loss to Holly Holm in November. It was a tearful conversation, during which Rousey explained just how emotionally (and physically) broken she felt in the immediate aftermath of the fight.
“In the medical room [after the match] and I was like down in the corner and I was like, ‘What am I anymore if I’m not this?’ And I was literally sitting there and thinking about killing myself,” she told Ellen DeGeneres through tears. “I’m like, ‘I’m nothing. What do I do anymore? No one gives a shit about me anymore without this.’”
But then: “I looked up and I saw my man, Travis [Browne], standing there, and I looked up at him, and I was like, ‘I need to have his babies. I need to stay alive.’ Really that was it.”
“I had to be that example, picking myself off the floor for everyone,” she concluded. “Maybe that’s what I’m here for.”
Following her performance last night at the Grammys, Taylor Swift cried to Selena Gomez about fucking up her song.
Swift can be seen weeping in the audience (looking more graceful than I’ve ever looked with tears streaming down my face) and telling her friends, “I missed a note. Did you hear it?”
I’m sure you did fine, Taylor.
Speaking of the Grammys (I know, I’d rather forget it happened, too), Paul McCartney was turned away at the door of Tyga’s after-party. Tyga has since stated that he knew nothing about it.
Oh, well. I’m sure Sir Paul found some other rich person thing to do with himself. [Billboard]
- While other celebrities were walking the red carpet and getting blocked from after-parties, Amy Schumer and Bridget Everett were celebrating their lack of thigh gaps on a warm beach. [People]
- Aaron! Oh, Aaron! Why did you get a neck tattoo! [TMZ]
- Neither David Bowie’s nor Natalie Cole’s families are thrilled with their loved ones treatment at the Grammys. [Gossip Cop/Billboard]
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DISCUSSION
People will no doubt crap on Rousey for the babies comment, but I can absolutely sympathize with her on losing a fight in such a bad manner. Especially for someone who spent so much time on top, it must be hard coming down so hard (no pun intended.)
Before anyone goes, “Hurr durr, why is she being so dramatic?” I think people should understand where she’s coming from. A loss like this isn’t just bad, it’s the kind of experience where you might be (maybe irrationally) thinking to yourself, “Well, that’s it, I’ve failed. I’ve done everything I can. I suck now.” Anyone who’s competed in anything like this and has lost knows just how much a dramatic loss can be hard. It eats at you.
And for someone like Rousey who’s competitive and clearly wants to be a winning fighter? It’s devastating.
I’m sure she’ll do fine and will find a post-career like many other MMA fighters have, but the post-loss funk is real. And it sucks.