Written by Kevin Iole at YahooSports.com
The very thing that made Ronda Rousey a superstar is going to be the same thing that hastens her retirement as a mixed martial arts fighter.
Rousey is not only one of the most successful and dominant fighters of her time but she’s almost without peer in the history of combat sports when it comes to promoting a fight.
UFC president Dana White announced on Oct. 12 that Rousey would challenge Amanda Nunes for the women’s bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 207 on Dec. 30 in Las Vegas.
The reaction, predictably, was over the top.
“[The announcement of] Ronda’s return garnered 489 million impressions, making it the most re-tweeted announcement in UFC history,” White said via text message to Yahoo Sports. ” … Her return is huge and yes, the PPV will be massive.”
There won’t be many more of them, if Rousey sticks to what she said during an appearance on “The Ellen Show” that will be broadcast on Tuesday.
“Not that long, I’m wrapping it up,” Rousey said when asked by host Ellen DeGeneres how much longer she planned to fight. “This is definitely one of my last fights. Everyone better watch, because the show isn’t going to be around forever.”
And then Rousey, 29, went on to explain that the incredible demands placed upon her are what have worn her down.
Rousey-Mania exploded in 2015 and she’s rarely gotten a break since. She’s become an actress, and that has brought on another dimension of interest and pressure. She’s a swimsuit model who earlier this year landed the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She’s a best-selling author, and needed to do a book tour to promote that. She’s a product endorser and has appeared in various ad campaigns.
And those are just her side jobs.
In August, before her fight with Nunes was announced, White predicted that whenever she did return to competition, it would be a mega-event.
“Ronda will be the biggest pay-per-view in our history and it will be the record for along time,” White said in August. “It is all the mainstream media will talk about all over the world. When we announce that fight, they will be tripping over themselves to get to her.”
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