After becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Ronda Rousey began her MMA career in 2011, signing with King of the Cage. She soon joined Strikeforce and made her UFC debut shortly after that.
Becoming the inaugural Women's Bantamweight Champion during the fighting promotion's first female fight at UFC 157, Rousey had an incredible run before retiring in 2016. She later signed with WWE, but has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with how her booking was handled.
Now, the Baddest Woman on the Planet is eyeing a return to the combat sports world...but not in the Octagon or a wrestling ring.
According to Boxing Scene's Lance Pugmire, Rousey and two-time undisputed women's World Champion Katie Taylor are in "active" negotiations for a fight in Las Vegas next year. Netflix is reportedly interested in streaming the bout.
Rousey's last professional fight was at the end of 2016 when she was knocked out in 48 seconds by Amanda Nunes. She still ranks among the greatest of all time, but boxing would be an interesting next step for her.
As Pugmire explains, "Although she won many of her UFC bouts by armbar submission, Rousey was schooled heavily in boxing by then-coach Edmond Tarverdyan in Glendale, California, and her confidence in fighting from the stand-up stance increased into her final bouts."
Rousey's time in WWE was short. She signed with the company in 2018 and left the following year. She returned in 2022 for a stint that only lasted just over a year, and later hit the independent scene in 2023 at Lucha VaVOOM. That was followed by a one-off Ring of Honor appearance.
"I think anyone's better than Vince McMahon," Rousey previously said while looking back at her time in WWE. "The only place you can go is up. I really enjoy Triple H and working with him, and honestly, I haven't been watching, but I saw something from Natty [Neidhart] saying that they had a card recently that had just as many women on it as the men."
"That's what I would really like to see, the women equally represented with not just matches on the card, but time on the show. I feel there's no place they could go but up and I'm really, really happy for all the women still there and thriving under the new regime," she concluded.
Would you like to see Rousey step into the boxing ring? As always, let us know your thoughts below and stay tuned for updates.