Ronda Rousey is looking to reclaim her UFC bantamweight championship belt when she fights Amanda Nunes in December, and it would not be a surprise if Rousey retires after the bout one way or another.
In a recent appearance on “Ellen,” Rousey revealed that she is not planning to fight for much longer.
“Not that long — I’m wrapping it up,” she said when asked how much longer her MMA career will last. “This is definitely one of my last fights. The show can’t go on forever.”
Rousey may have felt differently before she lost to Holly Holm over a year ago, but we all know how important her undefeated record was to her. While the 29-year-old hardly ever admitted weakness in the past, she now says preparing for a fight takes a lot out of her.
“I think it’s definitely the buildup that’s more tiring than anything else,” said Rousey. “If we had a fight right now, I’d go fight right now and then get dinner. I wouldn’t really feel tired over it. … It’s that buildup for weeks on end. If it just happened right now, I wouldn’t be nervous at all. It’s the waiting.”
In fairness, Rousey isn’t only contemplating retirement because her undefeated record is no longer intact. She has always been passionate about acting and even has an extremely lofty goal for herself if she takes that career path, so fighting was never her only plan. If Rousey loses to Nunes, it seems like a virtual guarantee that we won’t see her in the Octagon again.
