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Despite previous reports, former UFC women’s bantamweight queen Ronda Rousey won’t make her highly anticipated return at UFC 200 in Las Vegas this July.
Speaking with Yahoo Sports, UFC president Dana White revealed that the former UFC and Strikeforce champion has requested extensive time off following a one-sided loss to Holly Holm this past November.
When Rousey visited Melbourne before the championship fight, she laid out her plan to return in July for the historic UFC 200 pay-per-view at Las Vegas’ new multipurpose arena.
According to White, those plans have been put on the backburner due to Rousey’s Hollywood obligations, filming a remake of the classic Patrick Swayze movie Roadhouse.
“The filming of the movie got pushed back,” the UFC boss said. “She could do both, but the question is, should she do both? She could do both, but why should she? The filming is in a time frame where she’d finish before 200, but it would be cutting it too close.”
He’s absolutely right. Rousey has a tireless work ethic. It’s one of the many reasons why she’s the sports biggest crossover star whose popularity seemingly knows no bounds.
That hard-working attitude has backfired on the former champ, though. While preparing for three championship fights in nine months last year, the Calfornia native crammed movie roles, photo shoots, red carpet appearances, talk show spots, media interviews and television commercials into her schedule.
In a previous interview with Canadian sports talk show Off The Record, White confirmed that the frenetic pace wore down his most bankable pay-per-view star.
“When [Rousey] sat down with me and Lorenzo [Fertitta] a few days ago, she said, ‘I was exhausted going into that fight. I was exhausted mentally, physically, emotional’,” White explained.
Following the crushing loss to Holm, it’s pretty clear that Rousey needs to make improvements before she can unseat the new bantamweight queen.
Holm, a multi-time world boxing champion, outclassed the previously unstoppable fighter. Especially towards the end, Rousey was a bloodied and exhausted mess, wildly swinging punches and connecting with nothing but air.
UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier believes that Rousey would need to spend the entire 2016 season in the gym to beat Holm in a rematch.
Rousey’s return date is still a mystery, but, for now, at least, it seems the former champ has no desire to spend an entire year hitting pads at her California training facility.
The 28-year-old is set to appear alongside Mark Wahlberg in a new action flick, Mile 22, and star in the Roadhouse reboot.
Rousey has also signed on to make her first televised appearance since the face-smashing loss to Holm as the host of the January 23 edition of Saturday Night Live.
This is the reality for Rousey in 2016. She’s one of the biggest sporting stars – male or female – in the world right now. Even after being splayed on the canvas after a head kick, the public’s fascination with the former champ remains as strong as ever.
And the opportunities thrown her way are only going to get greater. Now it’s up to Rousey to determine if she can continue the juggling act as a pro athlete and Hollywood celebrity.
Luckily for Rousey, she is no longer chasing a deadline for her UFC return.
Holm is already tied up, agreeing to make her first 135-pound title defense at UFC 197 on March 5 against former Strikeforce champion Miesha Tate.
With that in place, there is no reason to rush the inevitable Holm versus Rousey rematch. Financially, the fight will surely be a multi-million dollar success, but fans will still pay top dollar for that match regardless of if it takes place tomorrow or a year from now.
Even if Holm loses the championship, the story of Rousey fighting to avenge her only MMA loss would still be an enormous box office attraction.
In her lone interview with ESPN since losing the title, Rousey said a rematch with Holm is “what I want”, but the jury is still out on whether or not that is a smart return fight.
Rousey is a fierce competitor with a history of overcoming adversity. She rebounded from personal and professional setbacks to become the first American woman to ever medal in judo at the Olympic Games.
And that same drive could again lead her to UFC gold. But Rousey’s management should be angling for a non-title tune-up fight in her Octagon return.
Rousey can’t become a better boxer than Holm in a few months, but with her speed, athleticism, and Olympic-level grappling chops, she could construct a gameplan to nullify the striker’s biggest asset and accentuate her own skillset.
That won’t happen overnight, though. And it definitely won’t happen while filming action scenes with Marky Mark.