Ronda Rousey was on the Ellen show yesterday and she stunned the world with the announcement that her December 30th fight against Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 would be one of her last. Okay, maybe ‘stunned’ is the wrong word to use. It seemed obvious to a lot of us over the past year that Rousey wasn’t all that passionate about returning to the sport. But there’s still a lot of questions we want answered about her plans, so let’s see what UFC president Dana White told TMZ in a recent interview.
“I don’t wanna take the wind out of her sail, I’ll let her say her own stuff,” White said. “I obviously know what’s going on with her, but yep … it’s winding down for Ronda. That’s up for her to say. I don’t wanna steal her thunder, it’s her career. But she’ll have enough for us to still enjoy watching her.”
As for why Ronda would step away at what many consider such an early part of her mixed martial arts career, White tried to put it into perspective.
“She’s getting to the point … Ronda Rousey has made a lot of money!” he exclaimed. “She made a lot of money, she accomplished what she set out to do. You get to a point, especially in this business, where you have to start looking at things and going … y’know? And she loves acting. She loves acting and she’s good at it. And if she dedicates herself to it she’ll be even better at it.”
“I think when she says she’s done, she’s done. At the end of the day, she stopped doing judo and moved on to mixed martial arts. And I think when she’s done with that she’ll probably move on to acting.”
As for the big fight everyone wants to see before Ronda Rousey retires, Dana stuck to his past talking points. “I’ve been saying for years that Ronda wants to fight [Cris] Cyborg!” he said.
“But any of these girls that weight 135 pounds … Cyborg doesn’t want to go to 135 [pounds]. I think to make this superfight that everyone wants to see, we’ll have to agree on a weight. I dunno yet, Ronda could say ‘I’ll take her at 145 pounds.’ I dunno. But I’m just assuming that’s what’s gonna happen.”
That’s a conversation he hopefully has with Ronda soon, considering she’s already got one foot out the door. Rousey has seemed adamant in the past that she’d only fight Cyborg at 135 pounds. But in other interviews, she’s said she dreams of fighting Cyborg as her last fight and then riding off into the sunset regardless of the outcome.
Cris Cyborg has proven she can make it down to 140 and no further. Asking her to go further would be like asking Cain Velasquez to cut down to 205 pounds. Here’s hoping we don’t end up losing this superfight over a five pound disagreement.
