Many in the MMA community thought it would be a bad move for Ronda Rousey to have her rematch with current UFC champion Holly Holm at UFC 200 in July. Sure, the box office dollars would be huge, but based on the beating she took from Holm it didn’t seem like a wise choice.
Despite that fact, many were a little surprised to hear that Holm would be fighting Miesha Tate at UFC 197 on March 5th potentially spoiling a rematch between Rousey and Holm at the landmark event to be held at a brand new venue in Las Vegas.
Turns out that none of that matters now because UFC President Dana White told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that Rousey has asked for even more time off and won’t be available for UFC 200 anyway.
Rousey, who will be starring in an upcoming remake of Road House, informed White that shooting has been delayed and thus she won’t have enough time to properly train and be ready for a fight on that date.
“The filming of the movie got pushed back,” White said. “She could do both, but the question is, should she do both? She could do both, but why should she? The filming is in a time frame where she’d finish before 200, but it would be cutting it too close.”
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“The way I look at this one is, Ronda has worked her ass off for us for the last three years,” White said. “She’s been fighting, promoting and building the sport. If anyone deserves the time off, it’s her. The night [of UFC 193] Holly said she’d do the rematch and that Ronda deserved it and everything else. So we were holding it for her if she wanted to do it.“What that woman has done is above and beyond what anyone has done. I mean, it’s just unbelievable what she’s done in the last three years. Anything we needed, she didn’t say no to anything; said no to nothing. She even took over responsibilities somebody else was supposed to have. So when she tells me she wants more time, you know what? She’s got it.”
All of that makes sense, but part of us wonders if Rousey, who hasn’t slowed down with her out-of-the-octagon commitments (posing for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, hosting Saturday Night Live, shooting Road House as well as the Mark Wahlberg movie Mile 22, not to mention her deep interest in professional wrestling) will ever come back.