On UFC champ Ronda Rousey, exit strategies, and the Gina Carano Principle

Think what you want about Ronda Rousey‘s MMA exit strategy, but at least she’s giving us fair warning.

Not that we couldn’t have guessed where this was headed, even without her admission that she might only have another two years or so of fighting left in her.

After all, we know how this works. Female fighter hits it big, then starts landing magazine covers followed by movie roles? The Gina Carano Principle tells us that she is not long for this sport. Next stop: Hollywood. Because if you can make a good living without getting punched in the face, why not?

And yet, when you talk to fans and even fellow female fighters about Carano’s career trajectory, there’s often a little resentment lingering under the surface. She was great for women’s MMA, and it was great for her, too. But almost as soon as she was presented with other options she was perfectly content to leave the division behind to fend for itself. So long and thanks for all the exposure.

But here’s where Rousey’s plan might differ from Carano’s. Not only is Rousey letting us know upfront that she doesn’t plan to be slugging it out full-time 10 years from now, she’s also giving some thought to what the women’s division will look like without her. As she told me on Thursday when I asked about her plan to be gone in two years, “Women’s MMA is my responsibility because I made it my responsibility.”

“If I was to walk away now and it fell apart, all that hard work would be for nothing but my own personal gain,” Rousey said. “Contrary to what a lot of people believe, that’s not all I care about.”

That’s the ironic thing about the situation, when you think about it. Remember back when Rousey bullied her way into that Strikeforce title fight against Miesha Tate? The criticism from her peers was that she had cut the line, that she was selfish, too willing to step on the necks of women who had blazed the trail for her. She didn’t share the unstated but always palpable us-against-the-world mentality that had united female fighters for years before she showed up, and she didn’t apologize for it, either.

And that, all by itself, was fairly new for women’s MMA. That got people’s attention, and undoubtedly helped transform her bout with Tate into a must-see event.

Still, Rousey claims she doesn’t exactly feel the love from her predecessors in women’s MMA. They might respect her skills and appreciate what she did to build a place for female fighters in the UFC, she said, but she still thinks they regard her with a “restrained resentment,” she said.

So who would have guessed that we’d be here, just about a year and a half after her win over Tate, and it would be Rousey who was worrying about the future of the women’s division. Even with a film career on the horizon, and even though her own future in MMA seems secure for as long as she cares to stick around, she claims she can’t leave until she knows that women’s MMA will be fine without her. And what would that look like, exactly?

“I think there should be several top contenders that are well-known and generally agreed-upon as the best chicks out there,” Rousey said. “When I feel like the depth and knowledge and public interest for these girls is there, then I’ll feel more comfortable leaving the division and trusting it to survive. Having a legacy is becoming more and more important to me.”

That’s the part that Carano didn’t seem quite so concerned with. She brought a new wave of fans to women’s MMA, gave us glimpses of what a thriving women’s division might be capable of, then she left without so much as a wave goodbye. If there’s any lingering bitterness about the way Carano ended her MMA run, that’s definitely the source, and Rousey knows it as well as we do.

“I love Gina, but I think we’re two different people,” Rousey said. “The goals that I have and the goals that she has are very, very different. I want to retain this title while also having another career that I can fall back on when I’m done fighting. The big mistake I made after judo was I had no plan B.”

Now it seems like she’s in the process of crafting a pretty sound backup plan, though fans are understandably ambivalent when they see Rousey’s name beside movie titles in all the headlines. After all, what does it say about women’s MMA if its most successful fighters are the ones who jump at the first opportunity to leave? How invested can fans really get if they think female fighters are just using the UFC as a platform to audition for something better?

These are fair questions, and ones that Rousey seems to have considered. You can’t exactly blame her for trying to make the most of her fame while it lasts, but you also can’t blame fans who would rather see her fight than act.

At least Rousey is thinking about what she’ll be leaving behind when she goes. And at least she’s giving herself some time – in between movie roles, of course – to make her dreams for women’s MMA into a reality that will outlast her.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.