Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has been absent from combat sports action for more than a year following her loss to Holly Holm in Australia. During her self-imposed exile from the public eye, she made very few media appearances, leading many of her fans to wonder if she’d return to the Octagon at all.
Throughout 2016, promotion president Dana White teased her return with possible appearances on two of the bigger cards of the year—UFC 200 and UFC 205—but he wouldn’t make a formal announcement until a few weeks ago when her year-end fight with the current champion, Amanda Nunes, was set.
From there, a more subdued media tour began for Rousey, and during an appearance on The Ellen Show, she confirmed that UFC 207 would be one of her last fights. Dana White would bolster her statement, saying that she’d discussed this decision with UFC brass, further relaying the additional detail that she’d like to focus on her budding movie career.
However, according to a recent report by The New York Post (updating concerns expressed earlier this year in the New Yorker), one of her attached projects, Mile 22, is on hold after questions arose from the studio regarding her acting chops. Another project she’d been targeting, a Road House reboot, has also been pushed back until May 2017 (at the earliest).
Rousey signed a three-picture deal with Lifetime earlier this year, so it’s very likely that her focus is on that aspect of her Hollywood aspirations. In her immediate future, though, lies what could be her biggest challenge to date, a return to UFC action following her devastating first loss. With a win at UFC 207, things could take yet another sharp turn in both of her chosen careers. We’ll just have to see how it all shakes out come December 30.
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