We'll find out at UFC 207 if Ronda Rousey has learned any lessons

(This story first appeared at USA TODAY Sports.)

Ronda Rousey, according to the official UFC rankings, is the third-best female combatant in the organization’s bantamweight division. She is not one of the two women in the overall top-15 pound-for-pound ratings.

The last time most of the public saw Rousey, she was flat out on the canvas in Australia after getting knocked out by Holly Holm. Rousey has barely said a word in public since.

Yet there is no other athlete in fight sports that could generate the flurry of focus sparked on Wednesday when UFC president Dana White announced that Rousey’s return, long rumored and much debated, is imminent.

It will happen on Dec. 30 at UFC 207 in Las Vegas, and it will be the start of the next chapter in the Rousey saga. Whatever happens in her title fight vs. champion Amanda Nunes, it will make for fascinating viewing. Whether you like Rousey’s no-nonsense, uncompromising approach, or bristle at her forthright and unapologetic tone, she is one of those rare figures in sports that you can’t ignore, not that you’d want to.

Because the latest chapter promises to be even more compelling than what came before it. There was something remarkable about Rousey when she looked utterly unstoppable in rolling to 12 straight wins from March 2011 to August 2015. She was a genuine superhero, with the look, the attitude and even her own signature move, the armbar, capable of snapping the ligaments and psyches of an opponent in an instant.

Now things are different, intriguingly so. Now she has been shown to be fallible. Never again will Rousey enter the cage with an overwhelming sense of invincibility.

Nunes (13-4 MMA, 6-1 UFC) is a powerful and confident Brazilian who wrenched the bantamweight title from Miesha Tate at UFC 200 in July. Rousey (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) will be the favorite, but Nunes is a live underdog with a point to prove and plenty of belief.

So many questions beckon. Will Rousey’s cockiness have been dented irreparably by her crushing defeat to Holm? Did that result expose weaknesses that had previously remained unearthed? Or was it a welcome wake-up call that will make her better than ever?

Quite clearly, the women’s bantamweight division has made rapid strides in terms of technical progress. Nunes is proof of that. Always strong and fearless, Nunes was once ragged and inconsistent before sharpening her game and rattling off three straight wins against current top-eight opposition. Rousey, previously so indestructible, knows she will need to keep evolving to remain at the top.

Rousey’s success from this point will hinge on what lessons she has learned. She became overwhelmed by the media whirl before the Holm beatdown and got too wrapped up in hyping the fight, including a manic outburst at the weigh-in that indicated a mind ill at ease.

If it had all became too much it would be understandable. On top of shouldering more promotional responsibility than any other UFC fighter, she also signed on to star in several movies, television commercials, and was even rumored to be in line for a temporary switch to boxing. Money flowed in, more than she could count, more than she could have dreamed of while tending bars and smoking pot a few years earlier.

Indications are that the humbling loss has provided perspective. Rousey has scaled back on her external commitments and will be taking no chances with Nunes. It is a different Rousey perhaps, but still with the same irresistible gravitas.

Whether she gets back to being the all-conquering marauder of old or is now a more beatable imitation, the plot merely thickens, and the anticipation builds.

For more on UFC 207, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.