UFC president believes Ronda Rousey may retire

When Ronda Rousey was at the peak of her dominance and popularity as the first UFC women’s bantamweight champion, she often would say she didn’t plan to fight for long.

Now that she has lost her past two fights, UFC president Dana White said he thinks Rousey’s prophecy might be a reality. White said Tuesday on the “UFC Unfiltered” podcast that he thinks Rousey is probably done fighting.

He based his opinion on a recent conversation with the former champion, who returned from her first career defeat after a year hiatus only to suffer a 48-second knockout loss to Amanda Nunes on Dec. 30 at T-Mobile Arena.

While he said Rousey is in good spirits, White didn’t get the sense she had a passion to return to the cage.

“I think she’s probably done,” he said. “I think she’s going to ride off in the sunset and start living her life outside of fighting.”

Rousey, 29, has not given any indication regarding her plans outside of a brief public statement and some vague social media postings. She has said she hopes to retreat to a desolate place when her career is over to have a family outside the spotlight that has shined so bright on her since she joined the UFC in 2012 and became the organization’s biggest star.

During an appearance on “Ellen” last year, Rousey said her first loss to Holly Holm in November 2015 made her briefly contemplate suicide until the thought of one day having children with her boyfriend, UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, snapped her out of it.

Later in the year, on another appearance on the show, she warned her fans to watch the fight because they wouldn’t have many more opportunities to see her in the cage.

Rousey often spoke of two major goals as a fighter: She wanted to retire undefeated and leave the women’s bantamweight division in a place where she felt it was sustainable beyond her career.

The two losses eliminated any possibility of accomplishing the former, but if Rousey retires, she can be secure in checking off the latter.

“She changed the world,” White said. “She put female fighting on the map. She’s been part of the biggest fights in the history of women fighting, and I hope those records can be broken. I don’t know if they can, but I hope they can.”

There are several stars in the division Rousey helped build from scratch less than five years ago. Nunes probably will defend her belt next against Valentina Shevchenko, who won a headlining bout on network TV on Saturday.

Rousey’s success also helped launch the women’s strawweight division, and a third weight class will follow when Holm fights Germaine de Randamie for the women’s featherweight belt Feb. 11.

Rousey has amassed huge numbers on pay per view, headlined a show in Melbourne, Australia, that drew a UFC record crowd of 56,214 and parlayed her success into movie roles, commercials and a hosting gig on “Saturday Night Live.”

“She’s got a lot of money,” White said. “She’s never going to need money again. Unless you spend money like crazy, you’re not going to need money again when you have that kind of money Ronda has, and she’s not a big spender.

“She has a cute place down in Venice, California. She’s got some plans; I think she wants to move to a desolate place and do her thing.”

Rousey also has shown an interest in activism. She released an Instagram post last weekend expressing displeasure with President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order restricting travel on many foreigners. Last week, she drove from California to deliver supplies to protesters at Standing Rock.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.