After years away from fighting, Ronda Rousey is training again — and that has stirred talk about a possible comeback. The former bantamweight champion says she’s not chasing another bout just yet, but being back in the gym has reminded her why she fell in love with the sport in the first place.
“They’re like ‘you look so good!’ Because I’m the greatest ever,” Rousey said on The Breakfast Club. “Of course, this is what happens when I train! I look great. Sorry. I don’t have to have a plan for world domination in mind.”
Rousey first burst onto the scene as a dominant force in Strikeforce, capturing the women’s bantamweight title before the organization merged into the UFC. Her armbar finishes and quick wins helped redefine women’s MMA, leading to her becoming the UFC’s first female champion.
Her reign included eight total title victories across Strikeforce and the UFC, and she quickly became one of the sport’s most recognized stars. But her dominance ended when Holly Holm stunned her with a head kick knockout at UFC 193 in 2015. One year later, Amanda Nunes handed Rousey another devastating defeat, finishing her by TKO in just 48 seconds at UFC 207.
Those losses marked the end of Rousey’s fighting career at that time. She stepped away from MMA, later joining WWE, where she found major success in professional wrestling.
Even after her retirement from fighting, Rousey was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018, becoming the first woman to receive that honor.
Mike Tyson’s Comeback Changed Her Perspective
Rousey revealed that Mike Tyson’s high-profile boxing return played a major role in motivating her to start training again. Tyson, at nearly 60, earned around $20 million for his 2024 comeback fight with Jake Paul, which became the most-watched fight of the year.
“But Mike Tyson coming back and being the biggest fight of last year just kind of proves that I don’t think anyone’s ever really done,” Rousey said.
“With Mike Tyson, you can never say never now. Holy s—! He got $20 million. Baddest man on the planet. 108 million views. Comment whatever you want, that’s the most-watched fight of all time, and he was almost 60. That’s how much his legacy means. How much his name means. That was really inspiring to me personally to see him do that.”
For Rousey, Tyson’s performance reminded her that legacies never fade, and that passion for fighting can always return when the time feels right.
Finding Joy in Training Again
Now 38, Rousey says her decision to get back in shape was about reclaiming strength and identity after motherhood.
“I have a cage in my garage. It’s not like I went anywhere,” she said. “I really did mosey on out there to train. It’s really awesome I get to be kind of a spoiled brat now where I’m like ‘I just want to build a cage in my backyard and bring my friends over to do some karate.’ I’m just having fun with it again.”
She added, “I think after having my last baby, being pregnant is f*cking tough. It felt like I was handicapped just compared to being a finely tuned athletic machine where I feel like I can do anything to suddenly I think if I did a forward roll, I would throw my back out. That’s just where it started, I wanted to get my bodily identity back from just being a vessel for creating another person.”
According to Rousey, returning to the gym helped her reconnect with the side of herself she once kept distant because of heartbreak from leaving the sport behind.
Reconnecting Through Friendship and Routine
“It was actually a friend of mine, one of my coaches, he was like ‘I really want to get my black belt in judo, can you help me get my black belt?’” Rousey recalled.
“I’m like all right so I had a couple of mats in my garage, he would come over, and I’d show him some judo. Then I started enjoying it again and he does wrestling and jiu-jitsu and stuff and it’s like let’s roll around a little bit. Let’s do that.”
She continued, “Then my strength and conditioning coach had been coming throughout the years and like ‘how about you hold some paddles for me and hit some mitts.’ So it just kind of came from a place of just joy, and I just want to do it just because I enjoy it, instead of this is what I feel obligated to do or this is what I’m being coerced to be doing for one reason or another.”
Rousey has made it clear that she is not officially preparing for a fight, but she admits that fans might always expect one.
“It makes me happy,” she said. “It’s really funny, I’m training and everyone’s like ‘what are you training for? What are you doing?’ I’m like for my own joy. Is that bad?” via MMAFighting
Rousey’s story shows that passion never really disappears, even after years away. Inspired by Tyson’s comeback and driven by self-growth, she is simply rediscovering the sport that once made her the most dominant woman in MMA history.
