It’s a turbulent time for the UFC as rumors swirl on multiple fronts. You’ve got several legitimate outlets revealing a potential sale of the league in the works, and then there’s the slightly less legitimate tabloid rumblings that Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather are interested in setting up a superfight without the UFC’s involvement.
As if that wasn’t enough drama for the moment, now we have Dana White questioning whether Ronda Rousey will return to the cage in 2016.
“I’d really like for her to fight this year. I hope she does,” White said on The Dan Patrick Show. “That’s up to Ronda. Ronda’s going to come out and let us know when she’s ready to fight again.”
“From when I decided to bring women in the UFC, no fighter has worked harder than Ronda Rousey over the last three years, other than probably Conor McGregor. She deserves the time off.”
Up until those comments were made, it looked like the UFC and Ronda were both aiming to have her return in November on the company’s big UFC 205 card at Madison Square Garden — a historic event marking the UFC’s debut in New York City. It was thought that the promotion was holding off on making that plan official until the event was a bit closer, but now Dana sounds less than certain it will fall into place.
Is Rousey simply not that interested in returning to fight again at this point? Or has the UFC’s rumored $4 billion price tag gotten her thinking she wants to renegotiate before stepping back into the Octagon? We could just be reading way too much into Dana White’s response, too. But without Ronda Rousey saying much about anything to the public, it’s hard to know what’s going on in her world — or when she’ll decide to return for another fight.
