Additional notes added by Dave Meltzer
Though it’s been assumed by most that Ronda Rousey would retire from mixed martial arts after her loss against Amanda Nunes, there hasn’t been much said by Rousey or those close to her since the immediate fallout of UFC 207.
That changed with Dana White’s appearance on Tuesday’s UFC Unfiltered podcast. While responding to a question about Rousey’s MMA future, White noted that he had talked to her earlier in the morning and didn’t think that she would fight again.
“She’s good, man. Her spirits are good. She’s doing her thing. In the conversation that I had with her, if I had to say right here, right now, and again I don’t like saying right here, right now because it’s up to her and it’s her thing, but I wouldn’t say she fights again,” White said. “I think she’s probably done. I think she’s going to ride off into the sunset and start living her life outside of fighting.”
White said that Rousey’s career record meant everything to her before she lost to Holly Holm at UFC 193, but she began questioning what she was doing and wanted to do more after that fight. He said that Rousey has enough money and wouldn’t need to make any again if she didn’t want to after earning so much in her career.
“I’m happy for her. She came in, she 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,” White said. “I don’t know if they can, but I hope they can.”
Rousey returned to the Octagon after an absence of more than a year following her loss to Holm to challenge Nunes for the women’s bantamweight championship last December. While putting up almost no resistance against Nunes’ strikes, Rousey was knocked out in 48 seconds.
In a statement that she put out after losing that fight, Rousey said that she would need to take some time to think about her future.