Ronda Rousey is looking to part ways with WWE, and her next stoppage seems to be a return journey back to the Octagon.
The former UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion switched sides with the pro wrestling top dog in 2018 as a full timer, following her exit from the mixed martial arts scene after two back to back losses in the Octagon.
The loss against Holly Holm at UFC 153 which dethroned her from the championship was followed by Rousey suffering another loss to the then Bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes in 2016 at UFC 207, following which she dropped the curtains on MMA, and the event went onto The Ellen DeGeneres Show to confirm that she would never be coming back.
However, that ultimatum is seeming to change.
Following Nunes’ retirement from MMA and the bantamweight title getting vacated, UFC commentator Jon Anik said last month that “Rowdy”, the current one half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, might be returning to fight for the 135-pound throne.
“In a true meritocracy, that’s not gonna set well with me nor the athletes that have been donating blood, sweat, and tears to mixed martial arts over the last several years,” Anik told MMA Fighting. “If anyone is worthy of that opportunity, it’s probably Ronda Rousey, and I do believe that she would be competitive. She wouldn’t enter that setting without the guarantee that she would be competitive. But I didn’t like that Henry Cejudo came back and cut the line of a bunch of 35ers that have been active. So, it would be hypocritical of me to say ‘absolutely’… But if there were ever a time, it would be absolutely now.” [H/T MMA News]
While Anik’s comments weren’t taken on a serious note at the start, reports started to surface that Rousey might actually be edging closer to a potential return to UFC. It gained more weight after Dave Meltzer revealed on Wrestling Observer Radio that Rousey has given WWE the date of her exit, but there’s still uncertainty surrounding the exact date.
“This was always, always, always the plan,” said Meltzer. “It kept getting delayed and then Ronda got hurt and the thing was – and I don’t know the date, and it might be SummerSlam, it might be a little bit after – the deal is that Ronda has a hard out. She gave a date, ‘This is my last date.’ I remember talking to somebody there and it’s like, ‘I know they’re going to do this, and I guess, make the big match for WrestleMania.’ And it’s like, ‘No, her hard out is…’ – they didn’t give me the date but it’s long before WrestleMania.” [H/T SEScoops]
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