Dana White: 'In no way, shape or form' did Ronda Rousey think she'd lose to Holly Holm
Apparently, Ronda Rousey's views were in line with public perception.
UFC president Dana White said Wednesday on TMZ (h/t MMA Mania) that Rousey had no inclination that she would lose to Holly Holm on Saturday in the main event of UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia. Rousey didn't underestimate Holm, White said, but she also didn't consider losing is a possibility.
"The thing is about Ronda, Ronda is the most mentally strong athlete I've ever worked with," White said. "She's unbelievable. I just could not say enough good things about her. She's a really strong person. But she's a fierce competitor and losing is not even in her vocabulary, never crosses her mind. In no way, shape or form did she think she was gonna lose that fight."
TMZ owner Harvey Levin followed up by asking White if he thought Rousey had not taken Holm seriously. Holm was a huge underdog, yet ended up winning by second-round knockout to take Rousey's UFC women's bantamweight title.
"No," White said. "Ronda doesn't underestimate anybody. Ronda trained hard for this fight and Ronda went to Melbourne two weeks ahead of time to acclimate over there. Listen, Ronda had a bad night, she lost. She needs to come back, get in the gym and overcome this thing. And fight Holly again."
The amount of hate Rousey is getting on social media right now is at a fever pitch and that hate has extended to people like Lady Gaga and Laila Ali. White said he is somewhat surprised by all the negativity against someone who broke new ground for women in MMA and was a dominant champion up until this point.
"First of all, she didn't touch gloves with Holly on Saturday, which I'm sure is a big part of it," White said. "But the stuff on social media and the things I've seen, they're just dirty, horrible people that just love to come out and be nasty and be negative. And with social media, even idiots can have opinions, too."
White, though, admitted that Rousey's bombastic personality has played a part in this reaction.
"She was the champ and that's what made her so bad ass is that she didn't care what people thought," he said. "Hopefully that's the way it's gonna remain when she comes back from Australia. You've just gotta block all that negativity out.
"It just shows what a polarizing figure and what a polarizing champion she was. It's crazy, man. I was saying this morning, we used to call her, she was like our version of Mike Tyson. She had that Mike Tyson aura about her. Now, in losing, you see that she really did. She really did have that Mike Tyson aura."
White has not put any kind of timetable together for a rematch, though he has said that doing it at UFC 200 in July would be preferable. He won't even talk to Rousey about fighting again for at least a month or so. Until then, it'll be interesting to see what transpires with Team Rousey after such a shocking, brutal loss.
"So now she's gotta overcome this, get back in the gym and come back," White said. "Holly Holm fought the perfect fight on Saturday night. I mean, executed the game plan perfectly and fought an excellent fight.
"The thing is at the end of the day, we found out Muhammad Ali was human. Mike Tyson was human. Ronda Rousey is human. Everybody is human. In every sport, people win and lose. I think the story now is, how will Ronda come back from this?"