As you know by now, Ronda Rousey is officially a new member on the WWE roster, debuting at the Royal Rumble. Rousey seemed to answer the question that she was done with the UFC as she hasn’t fought since 2016, which is when she lost to Amanda Nunes.
In an interview with ESPN, Rousey stated that she would not completely close the book on a return to the Octagon.
“I wouldn’t doubt myself doing anything,” Rousey said.
Rousey, 30, will not say the “R” when it comes to MMA. She said she couldn’t say it for judo, either. Rousey won the bronze medal in that sport in the 2008 Olympic Games.
“That’s what everybody else seems to say,” Rousey said regarding the retirement question. “I mean, I never retired from judo. If that’s what you guys want to think, all I know is that I really want to devote 100 percent of my time to wrestling right now and whatever people want to call that, they can call it.”
UFC president Dana White has said that he does not believe Rousey will ever return to the Octagon and he wouldn’t be interested in booking her into another fight. White and Rousey remain close, Rousey said, and White backed her move into pro wrestling.
“Dana is still one of my best friends,” Rousey said. “I love him. He’s been very supportive of this from the very beginning. I told him that I really want to bring him to a show, so I can show him. It’s so different when you’re actually there, when you’re really experiencing it. It’s the same thing they say about fighting, like you have to be there. It’s different. And I got him to say he’d come to a show with me someday. I’m gonna give him the intro. It’s almost like bringing your kid to work day or bringing your parent to school day.
“I can’t wait to show him why I love it so much and for him to kind of catch the bug, too. Because I know that he will. I know that he will.”
Rousey is one of the biggest pay-per-view stars for the UFC. She was a dominant UFC women’s bantamweight champion until a shocking knock out loss in November 2015 by Holly Holm. She told ESPN that she’d “rather not” discuss the losses as they remain difficult for her. But Rousey did open up a bit about her difficulty in overcoming such defeats, going back to her Olympic loss.