When you’re paid to win, losing is never the ideal outcome. Until Saturday, the only thing Ronda Rousey did was win. She was a perfect 12-0 in her MMA career. She was starring in movies and appearing on late night TV. In 2015, Rousey’s star burned brighter than almost every athlete – male or female.

Rousey has tirelessly fought – inside the octagon and out – over the past four years to achieve that stardom. Much of her fame can and should be attributed to her dominance in UFC. Her last three fights prior to UFC 193 lasted 64 seconds combined. She is a remarkable athlete, and has done a masterful job spinning her athleticism into a career outside of MMA. But if you deconstruct Rousey’s success to its foundation, if you dig down to the crux of what makes her successful, you’ll find a fighter. Rousey has made herself many things in her career, but she will always be a fighter.

UFC 193 was supposed to be the launch of a new chapter in Rousey’s career. She’d vowed to “disappear” for a time and focus on other priorities. She’s shooting a remake of the Patrick Swayze film Road House, for example. As she closed in on the 13th fight of her MMA career, Rousey appeared desperate to be anything but a fighter. In the weeks leading up to her fight with Holly Holm, it should have resonated but it didn’t. Her curt replies in interviews, the bravado, it wasn’t arrogance or fear. It was boredom.

Think about the level of commitment the greatest athletes have shown their sport. The maniacal attention to detail athletes like Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, and Serena Williams is staggering. They’re fueled by their desire to win, sure. But they’re also driven by the notion of losing. Jordan, Phelps, Williams, and just about every other athlete who has ever set foot in an arena has, at one time or another, lost on their sport’s greatest stage. Their countless hours and tireless work was been dashed by someone else’s countless hours and tireless work.

That type of defeat does something to a person. To good athletes, it steels their resolve. To the greatest athletes, it propels them to unseen heights. Losing is where the greatest separate themselves from the pretty good. But Rousey had never lost. She’d never felt failure, never even came close really. What was there to push her towards greater success? Nothing the UFC offered, surely. That’s why we saw her gradually shift towards other ventures and other challenges. Great athletes will seek great challenge elsewhere if they can’t find it where they are.

So who is Ronda Rousey? Is she the most dominant UFC fighter the world has ever seen? Is she good athlete turned celebrity? Is she pompous, arrogant, and overblown? We get to see who she truly is now, and more importantly, who she wants to be. If she is the greatest athlete in her sport, this moment will be a catalyst in her career. If it isn’t, I’m sure the new Road House is going to be just fine.