THURSDAY NEWS DIGEST 5/18: Demetrious Johnson tells Ronda Rousey to “grow the f— up” (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)

By Mike Hiscoe, MMATorch contributor

RouseyRonda (photo credit Mark J. Rebilas © USA Today)

Demetrious Johnson offered some life advice to Ronda Rousey.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated this week, Johnson was asked to share his thoughts on how he would handle losing after a five-year title reign and being considered among the pound-for-pound best in the sport, if not of all time. Johnson brought another, but former, long-time dominant champion into the conversation.

“You look at Ronda Rousey,” Johnson said. “You got your ass beat, grow the f— 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.’”

Rousey is coming off of two consecutive losses after going undefeated for the first 12 fights and four years of her professional career. After her first loss to Holly Holm, she took a 13-month layoff and spoke publicly of contemplating suicide. Rousey’s return bout with Amanda Nunes didn’t go any better; Rousey suffered a 48-second TKO loss and has gone back into seclusion and isn’t expected to fight again.

Johnson wasn’t trying to go after Rousey specifically, but instead was using her story as a bit of a cautionary tale for other fighters who may reach great heights early in their careers before having to lose.

“Everybody f—ing loses,” Johnson continued. “It’s part of the sport. Grow up. Look, Ronda, you lost two f—ing fights in a row, and you made more f—ing money than the women’s roster. You’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.”

Johnson is right. Rousey will be fine after taking two losses in a row. One day, Johnson will lose again too, maybe even twice. It just may be a while until that happens.

Hiscoe’s Analysis: Mighty Mouse has developed a reputation as being soft spoken and not all that interesting, but he’s actually been one of the most quotable fighters in MMA in the past year or so. Not in a Conor McGregor kind of way, but that’s a good thing. Johnson has a lot of insightful takes on MMA and he hasn’t been afraid to voice his opinion. People give him a hard time because the shows he has headlined have done so poorly, but I don’t really blame him for that; it’s just one of those things where he hasn’t connected with the audience for one reason or another. There are fighters who will go out and say, “I’ll fight whoever Dana puts in front of me,” or “I’m not going to bed for a title shot,” but Johnson isn’t one of those guys. He has a lot to say, just for whatever reason, no one seems to be listening.

THURSDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…

-Dana White confirmed yesterday that he has reached a deal with Conor McGregor for a fight with Floyd Mayweather. Now the hard part of getting Mayweather to sign will begin. McGregor confirmed the news to his website TheMacLife.com saying, “The first and most important part of this historic contract has now officially been signed off on. Congratulations to all parties involved. We now await Al Haymon and his boxer’s signature in the coming days.”

-Michael Bisping commented on his podcast regarding the apparent cancellation of his fight with Georges St-Pierre. “Honestly, it’s news to me,” Bisping said (via MMA Fighting). “I haven’t heard anything about it. I reached out to Georges and he said he hasn’t heard anything officially, either. And I still haven’t heard anything from the UFC or Dana White.”

-Dustin Poirier told MMA Fighting that any potential rematch with Eddie Alvarez will have to wait due to a concussion Poirier suffered in the bout and he is hoping to fight again in November.

-Rogerio Nogueira has suffered an injury and is out of his fight with Ilir Latifi scheduled for June 25 in Oklahoma City. Latifi took to Twitter and proposed Corey Anderson as a replacement. (SOURCE)

-UFC has invited the entire roster to their new headquarters in Las Vegas for the “2017 UFC Athlete Retreat” this weekend. (SOURCE)

-Miesha Tate shut down any talk of a potential comeback for UFC’s new 125-pound division, or any division for that matter. “There’s no weight class or amount of money that’s going to make me want to come back to the sport,” Tate told MMAJunkie.

-All fighters made weight for tomorrow’s Bellator 179 show from London headlined by Rory MacDonald vs. Paul Daley.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Watch Paul Daley take on Andre Santos in their Feb. 2015 fight ahead of his fight with Rory MacDonald tomorrow night.


NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: WEDNESDAY NEWS DIGEST 5/17: Alvarez and Poirier go at it on Twitter to set up rematch (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)


(MMATorch’s Daily News Digest features the top story of the day with added analysis, plus smaller tidbits in the News Notes section. Mike Hiscoe, who writes the News Digest Sundays through Thursdays, has a background in film criticism and previously wrote for the DVD Town and Movie Metropolis websites. His passion for Mixed Martial Arts goes back to 2005, but it was in the promotion for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie that he really got hooked.”This is my house, I build it,” is still among the all-time great UFC promos. You can follow Mike on social media under the tag @mikehiscoe. He now provides his experienced writing and perspective on live MMA events for MMATorch.)

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