Rumors of Ronda Rousey coming back to UFC

Remember back when there was one person who was the biggest combat sports athlete in the entire world by far and that person was a woman? Remember how previous to her almost no one paid any attention to the women's division in UFC? I remember those times and Ronda Rousey became a household name and headlines some seriously huge pay-per-views in her long stint as champion. I think that people can successfully assume that it is exclusively because of "Rowdy" that the women's division became as big as it is today.

She retired from the sport after two rather embarrassing losses in a row. One was the shocking loss to boxer Holly Holm and the second to Amanda Nunes. In both of these fights the previously unbeatable looking Rousey looked completely out of her element and it seemed that the magic was gone.

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In my opinion - and we all of us sofa quarterbacks have them - is that Ronda went downhill because she abandoned the strategy that made her an unbeatable opponent in the first place. Instead of sticking with her wrestling and submission game, it was like she wanted to convince the entire world that she could win standing up with boxing and kickboxing as well. It was when she made this choice that things really fell apart for her and I don't know why they didn't make adjustments because she was getting absolutely battered by superior stand-up fighters.

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The "kick heard round the world" showed that not only was Ronda beatable, but perhaps even extremely vulnerable. When she came back a year or so later to face then champion Amanda Nunes, I was kind of in awe that she still stuck to trying to compete on her feet instead of going for takedowns the likes of which made her the long-term champion that she was.

When she retired and went over to WWE I think almost everyone in the real fighting sports field released a simultaneous groan of "seriously?"

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I mean, from a financial point of view I can totally understand why she would do it. When you are a name as big as "Rowdy" you are going to get your millions in a controlled environment where the entire idea behind it is to make sure that nobody does get injured. In WWE injuries do happen, but they are normally quite minor and there is almost zero chance of someone getting accidentally concussed badly. Wayward knees and elbows are something that is definitely not supposed to happen and rarely do.

She's been gone from UFC for 5.5 years or so and now with Nunes out of the picture due to her own retirement, rumors have been circulating that she is going to make a return to the Octagon. There isn't anything solid to indicate that this is anything other than a rumor at this point but I think that if she was to get back in there that it would be a wonderful time for that to happen. She would also certainly be guaranteed an absolutely massive paycheck should she decide to do so.

There is one problem for Ronda though and that is if she fails to do well upon her return, the UFC will likely turn their backs on her and it could also be quite damaging to her contract with WWE. I have no idea if she is even popular over there because I rarely watch WWE anymore, but another loss in "real" fighting could tarnish her character over on WWE for sure.

She currently gets a salary of $1.5 million from WWE according to some online sources and she could easily make at least that much in one fight if she decided to come back. The problem here is that you can't just sign a contract on monday and be in the Octagon on Friday - well, not if you want to do well. Normally these fighters will take many months to train for a fight and attempting to do this while she is still under contract with WWE would beg the question of whether or not there is enough time in the day.

Whether or not the rumor has any truth to it remains to be seen but in the meantime, the always gracious and polite Holly Holm, who is one of only 2 people to ever defeat Ronda, has said that she would definitely be open to a rematch if Ronda wanted it.

Would you watch that fight? I know that I would. I just want it to happen only when Ronda is actually in top form. I'm not at all interested in some bullshit sideshow the likes of which happened when CM Punk tried his hand at MMA.