Brock Lesnar and Holly Holm have both reacted to Ronda Rousey’s claims that she’d been having suicidal thoughts in the wake of her loss to Holm last year.
Speaking on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show (h/t Paul Chavez of the DailyMail.com), Rousey said after the defeat at UFC 193 she was “literally sitting there and thinking about killing myself.” Lesnar said it’s important that fighters learn how to cope with defeat as well as winning. This was the first loss of Rousey’s career.
“One thing that I learned and she should have learned a long time ago was that you have to learn how to lose before you can actually win," the former UFC heavyweight champion said on SportsCenter on Tuesday (h/t Damon Martin of Fox Sports). "... You've got to be able to get back on the horse and this life is very precious and very short. One fight isn't going to make or break her career.”
Holm conceded that when she heard the quotes from Rousey, she wasn’t quite sure how to react.
“When I heard that she said that, for me it’s one of those things it’s like, ‘How do I respond to that?’" said the bantamweight champion, per Tristen Critchfield of Sherdog. “I don’t want to say I’m sorry because I think on a competitive level for me, if somebody was to say they’re sorry after [beating me], it’s like, ‘No, I’m a competitor.’ I’m not a charity case.”
Holm hopes Rousey’s disappointment could be used in a positive way: “In the long run, she’ll be stronger mentally from it.”
Rousey was the huge favourite to triumph ahead of her showdown with Holm in Melbourne, Australia, at UFC 193, having won all 12 of her competitive MMA bouts previously. However, she was a stationary target, allowing Holm—a skilled striker—to light her up with fierce shots.
In the second round, the fight came to a dramatic conclusion, as the underdog landed a brutal left hand before downing Rousey with a head kick. Here is the fight in full:
Since the loss to Holm, Rousey has kept herself out of the spotlight and has not scheduled a return to the sport. Indeed, the appearance on the show was her first sit-down interview since the defeat.
As noted by Snowden, given the nature of the comments, it seems wise for Rousey to take a patient and considered approach to any comeback. That seems the best course of action not only for the fighter’s long-term well-being, but also if she’s to dominate the Octagon as she had done in many showings prior to the shock loss.


I’ve learned that Six Feet Under and ER alumna Justina Machado has been cast as the lead in
Rick
Tyler, former communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential
campaign, in Storm Lake, Iowa, in January. (Photo: Scott Bauer/AP) Cruz’s
decision to fire Tyler, who was one of his earliest hires, was widely
seen by the media as an effort to turn the page on the narrative that
his campaign has been engaging in dirty tricks. In the wake of Iowa,
where Cruz staffers misleadingly suggested that Ben Carson was about to
drop out of the race, the Rubio campaign has repeatedly claimed that
Cruz is “willing to do or say anything to get elected,” and GOP
frontrunner Donald Trump has been even more direct, calling Cruz a
“liar” at nearly every campaign stop. The charges seem to have resonated
with evangelicals in South Carolina, where Cruz delivered a
disappointing third-place finish despite the state’s conservative
reputation and favorable demographics.Trump
immediately took to Twitter to crow that the Tyler incident reinforced
what he’s been saying about Cruz all along. “Ted Cruz has now apologized
to Marco Rubio and Ben Carson for fraud and dirty tricks,” Trump
tweeted. “No wonder he has lost Evangelical support!”The
Rubio campaign soon piled on, with spokesman Alex Conant insisting that
it was actually Cruz, not Tyler, who was at fault and using the fracas
as an opportunity to repeat his team’s favorite line about Cruz.“Rick
is a really good spokesman who had the unenviable task of working for a
candidate who is willing to do or say anything to get elected,” Conant
said in a statement, adding that “there is a culture in the Cruz
campaign, from top to bottom, that no lie is too big and no trick too
dirty.”The
Cruz campaign disputed Conant’s accusation. “Marco Rubio’s attacks have
been misleading from the beginning, and we’ll continue talking about
that,” said Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier. “We believe voters are
smart enough to recognize the difference.”What
isn’t clear is whether Tyler’s firing will change anyone’s impression
of Cruz — or whether, in fact, Nevadans will care at all. In the Durango
YMCA gymnasium, television reporters from NBC and Fox News rushed in
front of their cameras to do standup reports about Cruz’s decision,
speculating on the air about how it will impact the race. But most
voters interviewed by Yahoo News had no idea who Tyler was.
In the midst of Apple’s legal battle with the FBI, there has been no shortage of tech leaders who have come out and applauded
(Photo Illustration: Yahoo News, photos: AP, Robert F. Bukaty/AP)In
the latest sign that hedge fund gurus have little influence over the
political marketplace, Wall Street billionaire Steven Cohen and his wife
pumped another $2 million into a super-PAC backing Chris Christie’s
presidential candidacy less than three weeks before the New Jersey
governor flamed out in the New Hampshire primary, according to newly
filed campaign finance reports.The
Jan. 22 contributions by Cohen and his wife, Alexandra Cohen, to the
pro-Christie super-PAC, America Leads, amounted to 55 percent of the
$3.6 million raised by the group last month, the reports show. The fresh
contributions brought to $6 million the amount the Cohens had invested
in America Leads over the past year in an effort to elect Christie
president, making the couple by far the largest bankrollers of his
failed candidacy.The role of Cohen was highlighted in a recent Yahoo News
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz campaigns Feb. 21 in Pahrump, Nevada (Photo: John Locher/AP)LAS VEGAS — Donald Trump has led the GOP field in