Rousey had suicide thoughts after loss to Holm
By Mark La Monica, Newsday (TNS)
Sitting in a hospital room in Australia last November, her athletic aura of supreme dominance having been shattered a short time ago, Ronda Rousey hit rock bottom.
“What am I anymore if I’m not this?” she told “Ellen” host Ellen DeGeneres on Tuesday. “And I was literally sitting there and thinking about killing myself in that exact second. I’m like, I’m nothing. What do I do anymore?”
Rousey had to fight through tears to tell that part of the story of her loss by head-kick knockout to Holly Holm at UFC 193 last Nov. 14.
“I looked up and saw my man, Travis, was standing there,” Rousey said, referring to her boyfriend and UFC heavyweight fighter Travis Browne. “I’m looking up at him and was just like: ‘I need to have his babies. I need to stay alive.’ ”
Rousey was undefeated before facing Holm, a run of 12 fights, only one of which lasted beyond the first round.
Rousey’s invincibility grew when she beat Alexis Davis in 16 seconds at UFC 175 in July 2014. That was one second shy of the UFC record for fastest knockout in a championship fight.
So, the following fight against Cat Zingano in February 2015, Rousey won by submission 14 seconds to set the new record.
She followed that up with a 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia last August.
Rousey is one of three cover models for the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.
