2016 closed out in disaster for former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. She made her hugely anticipated return to the octagon on December 30th to challenge Amanda Nunes in a bid to reclaim the belt, only to get knocked out in just 48 seconds after Nunes’ unloaded with a flurry of punches.

Ronda Rousey may not have achieved her dream of retiring undefeated, as her record is now 10-2-0. However, someone who did was former boxing world champion and pioneer to the sport, Laila Ali. She also just happens to be the daughter of the late great Muhammad Ali. She begun her career in 1999 and finished in 2007 with an impressive record of 24-0-0.

Ali appeared on The Rich Eisen Show and discusses Rousey’s loss in great detail. She says its sad to see how the fans have turned against her since the December 30th loss.

“It’s always sad to see someone who was way up here, get knocked all the way down to the bottom. And you know it’s really sad to see how the fans sometimes can turn on you because now there making memes and making fun of her and because they brought into she was so great and she was the best.”





She reveals what she believes is a major factor in the fans turning against Rousey and poking fun at her loss.

“It was a big let down, especially when you find out somebody can’t take a punch in this sport, you’ve got to be able to do that. And now her chin has kind of been exposed, everyone is going to be going for it. It’s kind of sad to see.”

She laughs about the time when fans used to say Rousey could beat her, and comments on the fact people are now asking her to train Rousey instead of fighting her.

“But I remember when they wanted to see us fight, trying to promote a fight between us. But now they want to see me train her. And I’m like but you thought she could beat me? What happened?”

Ali says she is not a fan of training fighters, however for the right amount of money she could be tempted to train the former UFC bantamweight champion.

“I don’t train fighters I never have. You can’t train somebody’s chin to take a punch. But for the right amount of money we could probably make it happen. It would be interesting to see ‘Can Laila bring her back?’ I don’t know we’ll see.”

Ali blames Rousey’s camp for the loss. She believes they were irresponsible for allowing her to face Amanda Nunes, a woman who is “so strong with her hands“. She says she could get in the ring right now, almost 10 years after retiring, and she still wouldn’t get beat like that. She believes Rousey should have been given easier opponents.

“I have seen people when they just do so bad they will fire everybody and blame the camp. I think some bad decisions have been made on the part of the camp. I wouldn’t have put her in there with that particular girl who was so strong with her hands knowing that she can’t really take a punch. I don’t think it had to do with the ring rust, I could get in the ring now and I wouldn’t get beat like that. Even if you lose a fight in the end, I wanna see you take some punches be in the fight and maybe at a certain point you get tired and you wear down because you have the ring rust. So I think you definitely would have wanted to get in there with a couple of people that you know 100% she can build her confident and work on some things.”

Do you agree with Laila Ali? Did Ronda Rousey make the wrong decision choosing to fight Amanda Nunes in her comeback? Let us know in the comments below.

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