A side of Ronda Rousey you haven’t seen

CONFIDENCE is everything. And Holly Holm certainly isn’t lacking any following her shock KO of Ronda Rousey.

UFC 193

CONFIDENCE is everything.

And Holly Holm certainly isn’t lacking any following her shock KO of the previously unbeaten Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 in Melbourne earlier this month.

Asked by the New York Times how many times she would beat Rousey out of 10, Holm had no doubt.

“Ten,” Holm said, before explaining her self-assured mindset.

“If I tell myself that there is one that I might not get, then I’ll be vulnerable. I also know that I’m beatable, so I’m going to train twice as hard.

“She’s going to come back. She’s mad that it’s not her title anymore. I’ve got to be twice as ready as last time.”

Right in the kisser.

Rivals and critics were quick to hammer Rousey after her humbling KO, but Jon “Bones Jones has come out in support of his fellow UFC star.

A former manager celebrated Holm’s victory, claiming he had “created a monster” in Rousey who he said had let her ego get the better of her, while the likes of Lady Gaga slammed her for lacking class by not touching gloves with Holm pre-fight.

But, according to the recently reinstated Jones, Rousey reached out to him during his “darkest hour”.

Jones was involved in a hit-and-run accident with a pregnant woman and stripped of his title in April, and the former light heavyweight champion has finally spoken out about his ordeal.

In a lengthy interview with MMAFighting.com, Jones detailed the incident in his own words for the first time publicly, and expressed his appreciation for the role Rousey played in his time of need.

“Ronda has been very supportive of me,” Jones explained.

“She texted me quite a few times. She even invited me to come and stay at her beach house in California.

“She said, ‘Jon, you’re going to come back from this. If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know. If you want to get away I’ve got a house here that not many people know where it’s at and it’s your house until you get right.’

“Stuff like that, it’s like, ‘Man — this girl is on top of the world right now and she’s sitting here thinking of me at my darkest hour.’ That’s something I’ll never forget.”

The haters came out of the woodwork when Ronda Rousey was knocked out.

Jones said that the night prior to the April 25 incident, he slept over at a house where he had gone to a party, believing he was too drunk to drive home.

The next morning, the accident occurred.

“So, I get in my car and was definitely still really tired,” said Jones, who pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.

“Get in my car and I remember being at a red light and I had my music going. Texting on my cellphone. And I see the light turn green, and I assumed it was my green light, but really, it was a green light for people that were going straight in traffic, and I was actually turning. So, I just stepped on the gas when I saw the green light and I found myself driving right into oncoming traffic.”

Jones said that he hit one car, which then collided with another car, resulting in a pregnant woman breaking her arm, but he claimed that he assumed no one was injured since he wasn’t hurt.

Jon “Bones” Jones is on the comeback trail.

Jones said he “freaked out” and fled the scene because he assumed the police would think he was driving under the influence of alcohol.

“I just felt to myself, man, I went out last night, I haven’t been home yet, I probably still smell like the night before. I need to get myself out of here,” Jones said. “This is gonna be terrible, this is gonna be messy. I gotta go. I was afraid, man. I freaked out. I was afraid to talk to the police at the time. So, I just thought I had to get away from this.”

Jones left the vehicle, but then came back, looking to retrieve drug paraphernalia from his car, which the police later found.

“I got like five yards away from the car and I remember that I had a bowl, a marijuana bowl in my cup holder,” Jones said. “And so I knew that if the police found that bowl in my car, then everything was going to be so much worse than I thought it should be. And so I ran back, glanced at the cup holder, and the bowl had flown somewhere in the car and I just took off running again.”

Jones, who has previously tested positive for cocaine, was then stripped of the title, which he said was not because of the accident, but because he wasn’t yet ready to step back in the ring.

After pleading guilty to a felony of leaving the scene of an accident and being given 18 months of probation, Jones is now ready to return.

— with Howie Kussoy, New York Post

Originally published as A side of Ronda Rousey you haven’t seen