UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell had a lot to say about Ronda Rousey and the company she keeps in a recent interview, and not a shred of it was good.
Rothwell (36-10 MMA, 6-4 UFC) lambasted Rousey on Sirius XM Radio's Fight Club program, saying, among other things, if she can't climb back from a second-straight defeat to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 late last month, "she's a loser and she never was a champion."
"What matters is now," Rothwell said. "What's she going to do now? What matters is six months from now if she walks away from the sport and never fights again, she never has to have her name brought up again. If she can't come back from everything she's been through and being put on such a high pedestal and making waves, then she loses two fights and she doesn't come back from that? Well, then she's a loser and she never was a champion."
And he didn't stop there. Rothwell also had a harsh critique of Rousey's boyfriend, fellow UFC heavyweight Travis Browne (18-5-1 MMA, 9-5-1 UFC), calling him an opportunist who's decided to hitch his wagon to Rousey rather than forge his own career.
"...he's one of those guys that's just a man-whore. He's a phony, and a lot of (expletive) pisses me off with him. Why did you suddenly leave a great camp that made him good and move to a (expletive) gym that's got a lot of guys losing? For me, I think it was a financial thing. He went there and found a sugar mama in his girlfriend. He's just looking to get himself taken care of..."He's got some brains in, like, 'Why should I fight? I'll just get her to pay for everything.' It's a good financial move on his part, but it hasn't done his personal career any good and a lot of people think the guy has regressed and he's not getting any better. He's lost his footwork, he's lost a lot of different things that made him good."
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Meanwhile, Rousey's next move is anyone's guess. After her loss to Nunes, she made vague statements to the media about her future that read like they were written by a PR firm. She gave essentially no indication as to whether she plans to retire or get back in the Octagon at some point.
