UFC 193: Rousey v Holm (Photo : Getty Images)
Besides suffering from humiliation over her defeat in the hands - or feet - of Holly Holm, former UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is expected to remain silent in the coming months. She needs the time to heal from facial injuries, and she was suspended by UFC from fighting for six months.
The suspension by UFC was because of the extent of Ronda's injuries which caused her to use a pillow to cover her face when she arrived in Los Angeles from Melbourne. Besides Ronda, UFC also suspended for the same period strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk who suffered a broken right hand in her match against Valerie Letourneau, reports The New York Post.
It is usually state athletic commissions that make the medical suspensions for injured athletes, but because the match was held in Australia, UFC regulated itself and released the list of medical suspensions on MixedMartialArts.com.
Ronda could not fight again for 60 days and banned from having contact or real training for 45 days. Her 180-day medical suspension could only be lifted if a head CT scan would show that Ronda has no damage.
In Joanna's case, the ban from fighting is shorter at 45 days, contact for 30 days, but her suspension is also 180 days. Joanna also needs clearance from an orthopedic doctor after an x-ray examination that reveals her hand is not damaged.
Following her first loss in a title match, Ronda and her coach, Edmond Tarverdyan, said in a statement that the MMA fighter would take some time to rest. Her turnaround times from her fight in August to November were short since Ronda fought thrice in the past three months.
However, given the medical suspension as well as the public humiliation Ronda is receiving on social media, she is expected to be away from the limelight unlike her pre-fight week when she was appearing on several shows to promote the fight.
But UFC President Dana White warns that when Ronda returns to the octagon ring, she would be a savage, reports Fox. White points out that Ronda's loss "will only serve as motivation for her to come back with a vengeance."
