Ronda Rousey has been warned that she didn’t quit MMA, but that the sport spat her out as she eyes a return to action.
The legendary former UFC bantamweight champion went on one of the sport’s most famous unbeaten runs as she dragged women into MMA’s big leagues. Dana White notoriously declared that there would never be female fights in his octagon, but Rousey proved him wrong and became a superstar.
However, her run ended with two vicious knockout defeats and it later emerged that she was dealing with severe concussions. She was first head-kicked by boxing icon Holly Holm before Amanda Nunes finished her career within seconds.
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Ronda Rousey’s UFC return dismissed by legend Chael Sonnen
One man who isn’t convinced by Ronda Rousey’s recent posturing on social media is former middleweight and light-heavyweight title contender Chael Sonnen.
Having experienced making his own comeback with middling success and retiring on multiple knockout defeats, he knows how brutal the sport can be when it is spitting you out at the end of one’s career.
“There is just this idea that when somebody goes out there and breaks a sweat or they used to do this sport and they dangle this idea of a return,” Sonnen explained in a recent YouTube video. “But then an adult steps in the room and goes ‘hey, it’s not a return’.
“You were forced out, it’s not a retirement when they throw your a– out of the cage. There’s never a day when you want to be done with this sport, you will wake up and find out one day that the sport is done with you.
“There are three exceptions; Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Jon Jones. They all had belts, they all left on top and they were all wanted and welcomed to stay but they made their own decision that they were not going to.”