Ronda Rousey is finding her love for MMA again.
The former UFC Bantamweight Champion is a pioneer in MMA. She’s the one who popularized women competing in the combat sport. However, Rousey closed the chapter on her MMA career following her second straight loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. Rousey made the jump over to WWE and dedicated her time to professional wrestling until she opted to retire in 2023.
There were some whispers about a potential return to the UFC, but Ronda quickly shut that down in 2024 during Instagram Live.
"I had to keep [it] secret for years, so I would be able to continue to compete and perform," Rousey told fans.
"I think that there was just so much to [that Holm loss], that I couldn't talk about it in the form of like an interview or an article or anything like that, or there would be several filters between my words and people reading it. So much had to do with having so many concussions when I was in judo before I even got into MMA, I couldn't talk about it at all when I was doing MMA. Because it would literally put a target on my head, and I might not have been allowed to compete any further."
Rousey confirms that her concussions are why she’s retired from the sport.
"That's basically why I had to retire," Rousey said.
Now Rousey talked about working for WWE and stated about having to hide her concussions from the promotion as well. Rousey has maintained her stance since. However, that doesn’t mean that the 38-year-old doesn't train every now and then. The former UFC star recently shared her training sessions in MMA and expressed that she was finding her love for the sport again.
“From eight weeks after having a baby and eight years of stepping away from MMA to eight months postpartum and finding my love for it again,” Rousey wrote in an accompanying caption. “The first clip is my first session working with [coach AJ Matthews]. I was super self-conscious, embarrassed of how much I regressed, and honestly trying my very best not to pee my pants throwing punches so soon after having baby.
Second clip was yesterday, I’ve never laughed or smiled so much on the mat as I do these days. The last six months have been an absolute blast, feels like I have so much left to grow, and without the weight of the world on my shoulders nothing is holding me back.”
That White House money sure is looking good.
On a serious note, it’s interesting that Ronda is sparring again after making a big splash about having to deal with concussions for years. To be fair, Ronda is most likely taking it light as she’s not expected to return to the octagon. However, there is one woman who’s trying to coax her back into the ring - Cris Cyborg. The former UFC star caught wind of Ronda’s training session and suggested a fight between the two.
Could we see Ronda Rousey step back into the octagon?