Dana White on ex-UFC champ Ronda Rousey's future: I 'think she's probably done'

We may have seen the last of former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in the cage.

Rousey (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC), who posted six consecutive title defenses from 2013-2015, lost her title to Holly Holm in November 2015, and then she returned from a yearlong layoff and suffered another TKO defeat after facing reigning champ Amanda Nunes (14-4 MMA, 7-1 UFC) in December at UFC 207.

Aside from a statement released after the loss, Rousey, who’s No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA women’s bantamweight rankings, has been relatively quiet. And according to UFC President Dana White, who said he recently spoke to the 29-year-old fighter, it could stay that way.

“In the conversation I had with her, if I had to say right here right now – again I don’t like saying right here right now because it’s up to her – but I would’t say she fights again,” White told UFC.com’s “UFC Unfiltered” podcast. “I think she’s probably done.”

White said Rousey’s “spirits are good” and that she’s “in a real good place” mentally and emotionally, but the Olympic medalist, who was the sport’s most visible star during her dominant UFC title reign, is likely to move on from MMA, White said.

“She’s going to ride off into the sunset and start living her life outside of fighting,” he said.

White said that’s possible because Rousey is good with her money – and because she’s made plenty of it. He suggested “Rowdy” may even be looking to “move to a desolate place and do her thing” with more privacy.

“She’s so competitive that, her career and record meant everything to her,” he said. “And then once she lost, she started to say to herself, ‘What the (expletive) am I doing? This is my whole life. This is it? I want to experience and start doing other things.’ And I think that’s what she started to do, and she’s got a lot of money. She’s never going to need money again.”

As for her legacy, White said Rousey is clearly one of the most pivotal figures in the sport’s short history and helped blaze the path for today’s current female fighters.

“I’m happy for her,” he said. “She came in and changed the world. She put female fighting on the map. She’s been part of the biggest fights in the history of women’s fighting, and I hope those records can be broken. I don’t know if they can, but I hope they do.”

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