Will Ronda Rousey fight again? That’s a big question in the world of mixed martial arts right now, being asked by the most casual of fans up to the powerful folks at WME-IMG who just bought the UFC partially because of her. Since her quick and brutal loss at UFC 207, it seems like everyone has had an opinion on what Rousey should do next. As for Ronda, she hasn’t tipped her hat one way or another, releasing a statement shortly after the fight that said “I need to take some time to reflect and think about the future.”
But if there’s one person who’s in a position to know what’s going on with Ronda Rousey, it’s UFC president Dana White. Not only is she the biggest star in his company, the two are close friends who are in touch regularly. And on a recent UFC Unfiltered podcast, White sounded like he didn’t think she’d be coming back.
“In the conversation I had with her, if I had to say right here right now?” White said. “Again I don’t like saying right here right now because it’s up to her. But I would’t say she fights again. I think she’s probably done. She’s going to ride off into the sunset and start living her life outside of fighting.”
“She’s so competitive that her career and record meant everything to her. And then once she lost, she started to say to herself, ‘What the f**k 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.”
While we still have to wait for the word direct from the Rousey’s mouth, at this point all signs do point towards MMA retirement. She said leading up to her fight with Nunes that she was almost done fighting. The refusal to do media of any sort leading up to the fight seems to imply she’s sick of the game. And the decision to melt back into the shadows like she did after the Holm loss isn’t promising either.
Sure, stopping now after two harsh losses is a terrible way to go out. It’s probably the worst thing she could do career wise if she’s still super ambitious about an entertainment career. But if she’s mentally just done with fighting, then that’s it. MMA isn’t a sport you can half-ass at this level without getting your whole ass brutally kicked.
And now that she’s rich from the nine huge pay-per-view events she headlined with the UFC, she can use that money to build whatever kind of life she wants. We always complain about the lack of real life billionaires pulling a Batman. Rousey’s nowhere close to being a part of the nine zeros club, but she could still use her comfortable multi-millions to fight for what she believes in. She’s already on the right path, having just bought a huge pile of supplies for the Dakota Access pipeline protesters at Standing Rock.
So even if Ronda is done fighting, we doubt we’ve seen or heard the last of her. Our bet is she’ll be just as entertaining in her post-Octagon endeavors as she was inside the cage.
