Right now, Ronda Rousey is on top of the world. Her fight career sees her on top of the world and starring in a reality TV show. It has her on a hectic media schedule promoting the UFC, and she is getting offers for movie parts in brand movies like ‘Fast and Furious’ and ‘The Expendables’. She has been a good spokesperson for the sport, and she has single-handedly put the women’s divisions at the top of the MMA world. Rousey’s next UFC match is scheduled for December 29th, as she co headlines the year end show taking on her reality series rival Meisha Tate. That match is a complete squash at the books, as Rousey is favored at (-1000) with the comeback on Tate at (+650). It is a rematch, but nothing in the first fight indicates that Tate will fair any better this time around. But with Rousey talking about having 2 years left, and with the UFC’s schedule, it means we are going to get perhaps two more Ronda Rousey fights before she walks away. Rousey is going to command big money for those appearances, and it would behoove her to make her last fight be against Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino. The first match of 2014 could be a setup for her big send off fight. Right now, with the structure the UFC has, a rematch with Liz Carmouche is likely the best sell. Cat Zingano, who defeated Tate in her UFC debut but lost her spot in the reality show due to an injury is a viable candidate, but she may need a return match first. Sara McMann, another Olympian (McMann in wrestling), was considered a future potential opponent, but she recently suffered an injury, and she is still methodical in the ring and non descript outside the ring, which is not how the UFC like them. Rousey has talked with disdain about Justino, and there has been all kinds of back and forth on steroids and weight classes and all that sort of stuff. With Rousey’s run, she has been able to dismiss Justino and she has done all the better for it. If she is serious about retiring, then both her and the UFC will be in a position where they need Justino. Rousey simply has no other opponents out there now. What will inevitably happen is we will get a Ronda Rousey comeback to MMA. She is a hot product now, but under the glare of Los Angeles’ lights we will see what happens. She is going to look stocky and butch and we will see how far her ‘darling’ personality gets her when she fails a few auditions. For all her steam coming out of MMA, Gina Carano has landed very few real opportunities and she was a child of California, and infinitely more suited than Rousey for that life. So far she has avoided a comeback to MMA, but she really was not a ‘fighter at heart’ type of person to begin with. For Rousey, when the doors close in Hollywood, we will see her back in MMA.
