Ronda Rousey reveals severe history of concussions led to retirement, rips WWE and vows never to return

At the peak of her career in the UFC, Ronda Rousey was arguably the biggest superstar on the roster alongside Conor McGregor and she appeared to be untouchable inside the octagon.

That all changed on a fateful night in 2015 when Rousey lost her bantamweight title at UFC 193 following a brutal head kick delivered by Holly Holm. She made one more appearance in the UFC just over a year later with that fight ending less than a minute into the opening round after she was bludgeoned with strikes by Amanda Nunes.

In her upcoming memoir, Our Fight, Rousey revealed why she never really addressed the loss to Holm. She said it came down to her decision to continue hiding a severe history of concussions, which she said have haunted her since she was a Olympic judo competitor.

“My concussion history that I had to keep secret for years, so I would be able to continue to compete and perform,” Rousey said when asked to reveal something from the book that she never spoke about previously during an Instagram Live session. “That’s basically why I had to retire.”

Rousey said she suffered numerous concussions before she ever set foot in the UFC octagon, but she couldn’t risk that information being leaked – or there was a chance she wouldn’t be cleared to fight.

That played a huge part in Rousey’s decision to never truly face the consequences from her loss to Holm in 2015, because she knew that would lead to a revelation about her struggles with concussions. Rather than put something out there that could jeopardize her career in the UFC, or even her future in professional wrestling in WWE, she stayed quiet.

“I think that there was just so much to [that loss], that I couldn’t talk about it in the form of like an interview or an article or anything like that, or there would be several filters between my words and people reading it,” Rousey explained. “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.

“Same thing with WWE. They have a complicated history with their performers getting concussions, and it would be a bad look on them. So I felt like I really couldn’t talk about it at all. So I feel like this long form that I would be able to adequately address it.”

Rousey said walking away from the UFC really came down to her long-term health more than suffering back-to-back losses to Holm and Nunes.

“A really hard decision to understand, but one that my body really made for me,” Rousey said. “I feel like this is the only way to really get that across in the best, most complete way that it’s not just a tweet and a headline short.”

Following the end of her run in the UFC, Rousey wasted no time shifting gears into her professional wrestling career, and she quickly became one of the biggest names in the WWE.

The way she adapted her fighting style for pro wrestling amazed fans and critics alike . She largely performed like a seasoned veteran rather than a first-time novice. Her initial run with WWE came to an end just over a year later as she took time off to focus on her family and have a baby with her husband, former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne.

Rousey eventually returned to WWE in 2022, but her second run with the company only lasted for 19 months before she exited the promotion for good in 2023. She then started making appearances at independent wrestling shows, which further cemented her split with WWE.

Rousey points the finger at two WWE executives as the main culprits behind her decision to leave the company, saying she will likely never return there after the experience left a bad taste in her mouth.

“[The book reveals] how much of an absolute s*** show it is at the WWE,” Rousey said. “Because they can’t hold a sword over my head and hold me hostage with my own career. I don’t need anything from them, and I don’t intend on going back, so I can actually say everything that I think and feel, where everybody else that is still held captive by their organization cannot.

“We were contractually held to 90,000 words, and I was going to talk so much more s***, especially about John Laurinaitis and Bruce Prichard. But our editor said we had to streamline everything and not take a detour on, like, the ‘f*** these old bastards’ quest. There was a lot more to it, but I had basically get down to the meat and potatoes in this.”

The two names Rousey mentioned both worked at WWE for many years.

Prichard is currently an executive director at WWE, while Laurinaitis was the executive vice president of talent relations before splitting with the company in 2022. Prichard took over for Laurinaitis after his departure.

Laurinaitis and former WWE boss Vince McMahon are now at the center of a civil lawsuit filed by a former WWE that accuses them of sex trafficking and sexual assault. Laurinaitis has denied the allegations against him and claims he is also a victim of McMahon.

Rousey said she pulled no punches when discussing Prichard and Laurinaitis in her book, which she promises were the only people she had any real problem with at WWE. She tackled that subject when asked if her heated rivalries were real or fake in the organizations she’s worked for.

“In MMA, I originally just started [beefs with my opponents] for publicity but those other b****** did not get the memo and so they became personal,” Rousey said. “In WWE, it’s all fake, I love them. Except for Bruce Prichard and John Laurinaitis, they can go f*** themselves. That’s real.”

Rousey’s book hits stores on April 2. The ex-UFC champ is set to undergo a nationwide tour to promote her memoir, conducting a Q&A at every stop to tell more stories from her past.