Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has been a bit of recluse since losing for the first time in her professional MMA career. The UFC fighter turned pop icon feels like every eye and ear is ready to decipher everything she says or does and twist it into something completely different.
Rousey spoke with MMA Junkie recently on her absence from the public eye and media spotlight.
“To be honest, I’ve been trying to disappear as much as possible,” Rousey said. “I don’t look at articles. I don’t look at tags. I don’t look at comments. People on the Internet are mostly evil, and I don’t want to accept any of that negativity. I just use social media to put information out there, but I really don’t use it to receive it because people are really cruel with that access.
“I don’t want to allow them that access to me anymore because they really take it for granted, and they don’t look at you like a person. You’re an event to them. I don’t want want to read people saying all the worst things they can imagine about me every single day. I just put what I have to put out there out there, and I don’t look at anything else.”
Rousey goes on to say that she definitely does not use social media to be social, acknowledging the big change of being star.
“I never used social media until it was to help me with work – until I was hustling and trying to get people to catch on to this whole women’s MMA thing,” she said. “It’s only been something for work for me, except in the Myspace days, which all I used that (for) was to put pictures out and tell jokes about things that people take totally out of context now. I’m like, ‘Why did I do that?’ Because I thought I had like 12 friends and they all got it and I’d never be famous, so who cares? I don’t really use social media for fun except to look at clothes I like or photography I like.
“But the actual social part? That’s the same as searching through the Internet, to be honest. I use social media like I use Google Images. It’s not really a void in my life, and I don’t miss it at all. If I’m going to socialize with somebody, it’s going to be in person. If you know me, you can call me or text me. And if you don’t know me well enough to have my number, well, then you shouldn’t be talking to me anyway.”
Rousey is facing the issues of being famous and successful, and many times just wants to live her own life without the world watching and judging her every move.
“I’m being purposely mysterious right now because I think people have taken my availability for granted,” Rousey said. “I’m kind of just wanting to disappear. Everyone is constantly keeping me under a microscope, and I just kind of want to be left alone right now.”