UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson has earned the reputation as one of the most polite and well spoken UFC fighters on the roster today. Johnson, who rarely engages in any form of trash talk, seemed to really come out of his shell during a recent interview when he didn’t hesitate to give former Ronda Rousey some tough love.
Rousey lost the women’s bantamweight title to Holly Holm at UFC 193 nearly two years ago, marking the first defeat of her professional career. Following the loss, it was revealed that Rousey even went as far as to momentarily consider suicide immediately following the bout. While Rousey attempted to avenge the loss be reclaiming the belt over a year later, she was handed a one sided loss from Amanda Nunes.
Demetrious Johnson spoke to Sports Illustrated with some harsh words for the former champ:
“You look at Ronda Rousey,” Johnson told SI. “You got your ass beat, grow the f*ck up. It happens. It’s mixed martial arts. I don’t want to be like that. If I lose, I’ll be like, I lost.”
“Yeah, everybody has [lost],” Johnson said. “Everybody f*cking loses. It’s part of the sport. Grow up. Look, Ronda, you lost two f*cking fights in a row, and you made more f*cking money than the women’s roster. You’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.”
“when I fought Brad Picket, I never thought I could ever lose. That was back in 2010 when I broke my hand and I lost. I cried and I cried. Then I was like, I’m never going to feel that again. Then when I lost to [Dominick Cruz], I cried a little bit. I was like, It’s part of life, you’re going to f—ing lose, I’m over it. I came home and nothing changed. Nothing changed. Nobody said, You f—ing suck.”
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/18/2017.