Former UFC commentator goes off on 'victim' Ronda Rousey

Former UFC commentator Jimmy Smith did not hold back when discussing former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.  

Smith took issue with Rousey’s recent comments about her UFC departure and how she believed UFC commentator Joe Rogan and the MMA media had turned on her after he loses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.    

“It was really disappointing to see how happily everybody turned on me and how people like Joe Rogan, who were crying in the ring about the honor of being able to call my fights, people I considered friends in the media so quickly turned on me,” Rousey said during an appearance on The Chris Cuomo Project. “I also am kind of grateful for it in a way because it forced me to separate other people’s perception of me from my own perception of myself.”

Rousey had previously sat down for an interview with Valeria Lipovetsky earlier this month.  In the interview, she discussed her UFC departure, the loss to Holm, and her history with concussions.  

“My mouth guard was bad. I literally came into that fight concussed from slipping down some stairs already after all these years of concussions,” Rousey said about her loss to Holm.  “Then, I had an absolutely terrible weight cut, which means you have less fluid in your brain to protect it.”

The comments sparked articles in the media from the MMA media to mainstream outlets.  A lot of them categorized Rousey’s comments as ‘excuses.’  In her interview with Cuomo, Rousey called the MMA media ‘a**holes.’   

“The MMA media hates me. Not a single person has called me or anything like that. They’ve all just doubled down and said that I’m making excuses or lying or blowing things out of propotion, or not giving credit where it’s due. … I’m not waiting for it [the call] and I get that they’re a bunch of a**holes.”

After hearing Rousey’s comments, Smith didn’t hold back with his response.  

“I’ve never been a religious person,” Smith said on Unlocking the Cage with Jimmy Smith. “One thing that’s always said about God: He gets all the credit, none of the blame. That’s what Ronda Rousey wants: all the credit, none of the blame. ‘I want credit for all my wins. My losses, I had CTE and I had this and I had that. I’m the greatest to ever do it, but when it didn’t work, it was so and so and never me.’

“She never gives credit to the people who actually beat her. The idea that (she) left MMA and went to the WWE because (she) had concussion problems makes no sense.”

Related: Ronda Rousey blames bad mouthguard and concussion on Holly Holm loss at UFC 193

Smith did not stop there.  He went on to allege that the people behind the scenes, the cameramen, the sound person, the interviewers, and others couldn’t stand Rousey.  

“The people behind the scenes, camera people, audio people, the people you can push around and the people you can bully and the people you can talk down to can’t stand (her) f*cking ass,” Smith said. “Everybody behind the scenes that had to put a mic on Ronda Rousey couldn’t stand her. I said why? They said, ‘She was a b*tch to us from the moment she sat down to the moment she got up. Like it’s our fault she has to do this interview to hype her next fight. And she’s just miserable, and she’s mean to us, and we can’t stand her.’

“They were cheering when she got knocked out. This is what I was told. Those are the people you can be mean to and rude to, and they can’t fight back. Those people couldn’t stand Ronda Rousey, so don’t sit here and tell me that you’re the victim when the poor guy sitting behind the camera is doing his job gets sh*t on by you, or you’re mean to the person asking you questions when we’re hyping your fight. Don’t give me this victim sh*t.”