Ronda Rousey says she is confident she would beat Holly Holm in a rematch and credits new medication for allowing her to fight without the neurological issues that affected the final stages of her UFC career, but insists she has no interest in fighting again.
Rousey addressed Holm directly on Up and Adams following her retirement after submitting Gina Carano at MVP MMA 1.
“I said I’m retired, A and B, I think that I am a completely different fighter now. I would clean her clock and definitely now that I got that new medication. I took it before. I was diagnosed with cortical spreading depression, which was always happening in my last fights and basically why I was like I need to stop. I thought my concussions were catching up to me. This is the first fight where I was able to take it and when I spiked my head into the mat, that’s exactly the kind of thing that would have set me off before. I would have lost big chunks of my vision and it didn’t come back at all. It ended up working perfectly in a live situation.”
Rousey said the things she once wanted most no longer hold the same weight.
“I’m better than I’ve ever been. I have better coaches than I’ve ever had. I finally don’t have these neurological issues that I had before. But now that I have it all set in front of me, I’ve changed and the things that I want have changed and suddenly these aren’t the most important things in the world to me anymore. It’s these kids and spending time with them.”
She was unequivocal about the rematch never happening.
“I think I definitely have the ability and the opportunity to be able to f*cking clean her clock and rewrite all of that but it’s no longer important to me anymore. It doesn’t haunt me. It’s not the most important thing in my life and these people’s perceptions and knowing how great I am and all this stuff. I know how good I am and my kids need me in their life and I want to be there for them.”
Holm knocked out Rousey in 2015 to claim the UFC bantamweight title in one of the biggest upsets in MMA history. Holm has previously said she would always be open to a rematch.