Only two people know if Travis Browne is a domestic abuser.
Browne and his wife.
People who are defenders of Browne will say that his wife never went to the police, but conveniently forget that when any athlete in accused of abuse or rape, people immediately say.
“Many of these crimes go unreported because of fear.”
So as Jay Z would say:
“Is it “Oochie Wally Wally” or is it “One Mic”? Is it “Black Girl Lost” or shorty owe you for ice?”
With that being said, I still believe in innocent into proven guilty, but you tell me if a wife of an athlete in a major sport posted this on Instagram, how big of a story would it be?
If this was an NBA, NFL, NHL, College basketball or football athlete, what would the response be from the media and specifically women in media?
Would it be brushed aside, would Browne be given the benefit of the doubt? Browne is a low-level UFC fighter, so I understand if the story was just about him and his wife, most people would just ignore it.
But, that isn’t case.
After Ronda Rousey won her last UFC bout, I mentioned something on social media that I thought was interesting. Rousey is one of the FEW athletes in the world that is universally praised and liked by the majority of fans and media.
I like her as well, I think she is the full package. She is magnificent at what she does in the Octagon and has the type of personality that is engaging. I’ve personally witnessed her stop what she is doing and sign 100s of autographs for fans, while other athletes slipped out the backdoor. I am not saying she is a bad person at all, I think overall she is one of the better and most honest people in sports.
But when outed about her relationship with Browne she also proved to be one of the biggest hypocrites of all-time.
Here was her quote to ESPN.
“I don’t talk about my personal life much. That’s why it’s called ‘personal life,'” Rousey told ESPN in a statement Monday. “It’s true that Travis and I are in a relationship. I’ve really enjoyed the time we have spent together and getting to know one another. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.”
On the surface, I would agree with her comment. You are an athlete you don’t have to talk about your personal life or defend who you are dating. Frankly, that is no one business, but your own.
BUT……………………
You can’t throw stones if you are living in a glass house. Rousey on SEVERAL occasions has spoken on Floyd Mayweather’s personal life and history of domestic violence, so she can’t run now from her own affiliation with an alleged domestic abuser.
Now, I want this next part to be CRYSTAL CLEAR.
This is not condoning anything that Mayweather has done in the past, present or future, nor is this me giving my opinion on Mayweather’s lifestyle.
People are entitled to whatever opinion they want to have about Mayweather, but if you publicly come out and speak on his private life and lifestyle choices, you can’t expect people to just ignored the fact that there is a chance the married man you are dating beat the hell out of his wife.
This isn’t taking sides, that is common sense.
Oh and how did Rousey handle a domestic situation she didn’t like, with violence of course.
This is from her own book.
That is a classic “do as I say, not as I do” way of thinking.
I agree with women when they say there is no reason a man should put his hands on a woman unless their life is in danger, but I also believe that extends to women putting their hands on men. The people saying “well he blocked the door”, aren’t realizing there isn’t a man on earth who hasn’t been caught up in something that didn’t try to “plead” (Rousey words not mine) for his girlfriend or wife to stay for him to explain. He wasn’t kidnapping her, by Rousey own admission he was trying to come up with something so she wouldn’t leave.
Rousey’s life wasn’t in danger, the man wasn’t armed and he didn’t strike her after she smack him. It should be noted she struck him first, something she readily admits. Men know regardless what the law says, even if a woman hits you first, you can’t retaliate, because you will end up in jail. In her owns words, he was crying, but how did she handle the situation? Not by talking it out or calling the police for her invasion of privacy, she beat him up. In this situation, as the trained MMA fighter, regardless if she was is a woman, she was the more dangerous of the two individuals in that room. Flip that situation and what do you think would happen?
A trained male fighter finds something on his girlfriend’s laptop. He waits for her to come home, she starts crying and he slaps her in the face? He tries to leave, but she begs for him to stay, so he punches and knees her in the face. The male fighter puts this all in his book, do you think media would just laugh that off?
The hypocrisy goes farther than Rousey, it extends to mainstream media.
This shouldn’t be surprising at all. This isn’t about race (even if there is possibly some elements to it depending on the person), this is simply about who they like and who they don’t like.
Dez Bryant can’t do the same things than Steve Smith can do, simply because the media like Steve Smith better.
When it comes to Rousey she is untouchable, if this was almost any other athlete in the world, it would have been a headline story.
As of this writing it is BURIED on ESPN. When Rousey hosted Sportscenter even though they were aware of this relationship, it was never spoken about. The alleged abuse photos aren’t being shown anywhere. Skip and Stephen A. haven’t talked about. There is no Outside the Lines special. Women in media have been silent about it on Twitter. DEAD SILENT.
Why is that?
It is the same premise of when I talked about with the media and Greg Hardy.
People rather the pretty lie than the ugly truth. The ugly truth is that Rousey’s motivations for commenting on Mayweather had less to do with her stance on domestic violence and more to do with expanding her brand.
The ugly truth is mainstream media doesn’t want to jeopardize their relationships with one of the biggest rising and crossover stars in sports by digging too deep in the rabbit hole.
Because when you start digging you might find a lot of things you don’t want see.
Look at these two ESPN article.
The one from ESPNW, says Brown was CLEARED.
But that isn’t really true, Brown wasn’t cleared, they couldn’t just conclusively say who was telling the truth, in fact UFC was careful in not using the word cleared.
Remember the NFL used “independent investigators” as well, but is it truly independent when the company that it is hiring them has a stake in what the conclusion will be?
ESPN also failed to include this statement from Browne’s wife (which you can read below). By limiting to just Browne’s side of the story, they are leading you to believe that Browne is innocent, which he might be, but did they do that for Jameis Winston & other athletes who were accused but “cleared”? Did they reach out to Browne’s wife to get her statement? Because the goal is to be fair and unbiased, correct?
“I told them the truth, I gave them photos, I gave them a dated and detailed journal, and how they came up with those results is beyond belief. The investigator got this info and helped the UFC come to this conclusion. My family and I are totally baffled. It just shows what an abused person from a close family in Florida faces when they go up against an ex-FBI investigator, Campbell & Williams, and the UFC. They have more money than we do. They appear to be the winners. We believe that in the end truth prevails. At the present time, I feel that the truth hasn’t come out and I have no other option than to press charges with the same evidence that was provided, and we’ll let the state of California decide whether I suffered from domestic violence.”
If someone was accusing an athlete, with photos and direct quote, that wasn’t dating one of the biggest stars in UFC, who they have a cozy relationship with, would that NOT be including in their reporting?
Why hasn’t anyone asked Browne’s wife to view the journal? ESPN, SI, FOX Sports, etc etc? If she has all this evidence, why hasn’t one news organization has followed up with her? If she is lying, shouldn’t that be exposed to clear Browne and by association Rousey? Why hasn’t any of this been done? Why when Rousey speaks on using violence to handle a domestic situation it is seen as a joke by the media, but when Greg Hardy says gun blazing and comments on Brady’s wife, everyone has a take?
Hardy doesn’t seem to care, neither does Rousey, so where are your hot takes for this issue?
You tell me?
Maybe that is why Rousey wants her private life to stay………private.
