Ronda Rousey last fought in the UFC back in 2016 and recently returned to training, but does that mean she’s actually considering a return?
Rousey says that while no fighter has ever truly retired, returning to the gym didn’t necessarily mean working toward a reunion with the UFC. The former bantamweight champion appreciated the praise he received for training footage posted on social media, but he also didn’t lash out at Dana White about his return.
“They’re like, ‘You look so good!’ ‘Cause I’m the best of all time,” Rousey said. The Breakfast Club on Thursday. “Of course, this is what happens when I train! I look great. Sorry, but I don’t have any plans for world domination in mind.
“But for Mike Tyson to come back and be the biggest fight of last year, it kind of proves that I don’t think anyone has really done it.”
Of course, Tyson returned to the ring at the age of 58 for a boxing match against Jake Paul that became one of the most anticipated bouts in martial arts history.
Rousey, 38, isn’t that far removed from her athletic prime, but her decision to train again actually had a lot to do with her own health and the way her body felt after giving birth to her daughter in January.
“I have a cage in my garage. It’s not like I went anywhere,” Rousey said with a laugh. “I worked really hard[to train]and now it’s really amazing to be that spoiled brat who’s like, ‘I want to build a cage in my backyard and bring my friends over and do karate.’” I’m also enjoying it. It got to the point where it kind of took over from me and I was fighting and training for reasons other than myself.
“After having my last child, I think being pregnant is fucking hard. I felt like I was handicapped compared to an exercise machine that was conditioned to do everything, to the point where if I suddenly rolled forward, I would throw my hips out. That’s where it started. I wanted to take back my physical identity from just being a vessel to create another person. Just get that freedom of movement back. I started training MMA again because I felt like I had lost my identity.” As a martial artist, I love him so much that I think it hurt my heart so much that I can’t be near him anymore. I went to the extreme of not wanting to train. I don’t want to do anything at all. ”
Rousey effectively cut ties with the sport after her loss to Amanda Nunes, before becoming a WWE superstar.
Although she eventually returned to the UFC after being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018, Rousey revealed in her autobiography that repeated concussions influenced her decision to withdraw in the first place, and any talks of a rematch were scrapped.
That being said, Rousey admits that she’s now hooked on the sport again, but really, it’s just fun to get back to doing what she always enjoyed before becoming one of the biggest fighters in UFC history.
“It was actually a friend of mine, one of my coaches, and he asked, ‘I really want to get a black belt in judo, can you help me get a black belt?'” Rousey explained. “I was like, okay, so I put some mats in the garage and he came over and showed me judo. Then I started enjoying it again, and he did some wrestling and jiu-jitsu and stuff and was like, let’s just roll around a little bit. Let’s do that. Then my strength and conditioning coach, who’s been coming over for years, was like, ‘Why don’t you pick up a paddle and hit the mitts for me?’
“So it just comes from a place of joy, not that I feel obligated to do this or that I’m forced to do this for any reason, I just want to do it because it’s fun. It’s what my body really wants. It’s what I’ve been training to do my whole life, and I feel healthier and better and I want to train again.”
Obviously, Rousey hasn’t closed off the possibility of a comeback, but she hasn’t declared a return from retirement either.
For now, she’s just happy to be back on the mat and remembering why she started MMA in the first place.
“It makes me happy,” Rousey said. “It’s really funny. I’m training and people are like, ‘What are you training for? What are you doing?'” I’m like a joy to myself. is that bad?