Ronda Rousey's sister on Internet haters: 'Their mothers probably didn't love them enough'
Ronda Rousey has been a polarizing figure in MMA from day one. And since her knockout loss against Holly Holm last month, Rousey has taken an inordinate amount of online abuse.
Social media has lit up with hate, the vast majority of which has nothing to do with constructive criticism. Much of it has been venomous and unfair against someone who has accomplished an incredible amount in the sport in a short time.
In an interesting first-person essay for Vice Sports, Rousey's sister Maria Burns Ortiz addressed those repulsive words of others -- none of which she actually reads -- among other things.
"Occasionally I wonder how people could say such awful things about someone they don't even know, someone they've never met," Burns Ortiz wrote. "I attribute it to the fact that their mothers probably didn't love them enough, and then I briefly curse out the part of the Internet that allows people to hide behind anonymity as they let out the worst parts of themselves.
"Sometimes, all you can do is think, 'What the f*ck is wrong with you people?'"
Rousey has not said much since the defeat against Holly Holm at UFC 193 ended her undefeated streak. She opened up in an interview with ESPN The Magazine and has been caught a couple of times by TMZ, but that's all. Burns Ortiz, a sports writer and author of Rousey's book My Fight/Your Fight, broke down what it has been like for someone close to her, as she ascended to being the biggest star in MMA and then dealt with the heartbreaking loss.
Burns Ortiz has not watched her sister's fight against Holm and won't. She hasn't read a word about it, either.
"I don't see a point in reliving the moment when a part of my loved one died, when I saw someone I cared about have her soul crushed," Burns Ortiz wrote. "I saw how horrible people can be to someone they don't even know, which made me even more appreciative when I saw how wonderfully Ronda's friends and family treated her. Those are the people that matter."
Burns Ortiz wrote about the incredible amount of media responsibilities Rousey had leading up to the fight and how so quickly her sister became one of the most famous athletes on the planet. She wrote that she has seen Rousey come back before and this will be a "new beginning" for her.
The author, though, still can't understand the mindset of those who spout off hatefully on the Internet. Her solution is to not consume any of it.
"I hear that people say insensitive, hateful, disgusting things about my sister—and my mother—and I don't try to make sense of it, because you can't," Burns Ortiz wrote.. "There's something very strange, though, when the world seems to think they know someone—this idea that society suddenly owns a right to build someone up or tear them down because they are a public figure. To watch that happen to someone you love is enough to drive you insane €”unless you tune it out, which I do."