In November of 2015, dominant women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was knocked stiff by a second-round Holly Holm head-kick. This shocking upset loss was followed by a long stretch of inactivity, during which many members of the MMA community wondered whether or not the former champ would ever return to the cage.
Eventually, of course, Rousey did return to the cage, as she took on Amanda Nunes in the main event of December’s UFC 207 more than a year later. Regrettably for the WMMA trailblazer and her fans, however, this fight went even worse than her bout with Holm, as she was mauled in just 48 seconds.
With this latest loss, fans are once again wondering if Rousey will ever step foot into the Octagon again. According to UFC president Dana White, who recently spoke on the subject on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, Rousey fans would be wise not to get there hopes up.
“In the conversation I had with her, if I had to say right here right now – again I don’t like saying right here right now because it’s up to her – but I would’t say she fights again,” he said. “I think she’s probably done.”
“She’s going to ride off into the sunset and start living her life outside of fighting,” he continued.
White then added that Rousey is so competitive that he doesn’t believe she’ll want to fight if she can’t win at the top level. He also reminded that she is not exactly hurting for money.
“She’s so competitive that, her career and record meant everything to her,” he said. “And then once she lost, she started to say to herself, ‘What the f*ck am I doing? This is my whole life. This is it? I want to experience and start doing other things.’ And I think that’s what she started to do, and she’s got a lot of money. She’s never going to need money again.”
“I’m happy for her,” he said. “She came in and changed the world. She put female fighting on the map. She’s been part of the biggest fights in the history of women’s fighting, and I hope those records can be broken. I don’t know if they can, but I hope they do.”
Do you want to see Ronda Rousey fight again, or is it time for the former champ to hang up the gloves? Sound off, PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/30/2017.