Back in December, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes set foot in the Octagon to fight former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in a highly anticipated showdown. Leading up to the fight, Rousy was the focus of the promos, drawing quite a bit of controversy given the fact that Nunes was the champion going into the fight.
When the pair stepped in the Octagon, it took just 47 seconds for Nunes to stop the former champ via strikes, ending the long awaited ‘Ronda Rousey return’ following Rousey being knocked out by Holly Holm back in 2015.
With her UFC 207 win over Rousey, Nunes was asked about the fight during a Q&A with fans at the ‘UFC Fight Night: 106’ weigh-ins this week, where she offers some advice to the former champ regarding her potential comeback:
“She needs to take some time to recover,” Nunes said. “A loss is something tough. I’ve lost before, you need great people around you, your family, people giving you positive energy. I want to see Ronda coming back, her finishing her career with a win. Every athlete deserves that. I don’t want it to end this way because it’s sad.
“I won, but I don’t wish her any harm. I want her to come back and maybe, who knows, a rematch in the future? It would be perfect.”
Since the loss, there has been no word as to whether or not Rousey will officially retire from MMA. While some believed that she would try to return to the Octagon once again, UFC President Dana White revealed in an interview following her UFC 207 loss to Nunes that Rousey likely would be stepping away from the Octagon in order to follow her acting career, which picked up steam following her loss to Holly Holm.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/11/2017.