It is being billed as “Ronda Returns,” which means Amanda Nunes of Brazil, despite being the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, will be playing second fiddle when she defends her belt against Ronda Rousey at UFC 207 on Dec. 30 in Las Vegas.
The UFC marketing machine is already in full gear flooding social media with promotional videos for the pay-per-view event at T-Mobile Arena, nearly all of them featuring Rousey with only a token mention of Nunes. That’s to be expected given Rousey’s enormous popularity.
It will be Rousey’s first fight since she was pulverized by Holly Holm at UFC 193 last November in Melbourne, Australia. While Rousey took a sabbatical to nurse injuries and enhance her movie career, Holm lost the belt in her first defense to Miesha Tate at UFC 196 in March and Tate then lost in her first defense to Nunes at UFC 200 in July.
Considering her time away from the Octagon and how badly she was beaten by Holm, Rousey (12-1) might have been better served to return in a non-title tune-up. Instead, she faces a stiff challenge in Nunes (13-4). While the champion has a Brazilian jiujitsu black belt, it’s her fierce striking power, especially in the early rounds, that is most dangerous. She battered Tate into a first-round submission at T-Mobile Arena, breaking her nose early in the round and following up with damaging strikes that pummeled Tate to the point where she was submitted.
Rousey tried to stand and strike with Holm, a former boxing champion. It was a flawed strategy as Holm landed the quicker, more powerful strikes, dazing Rousey, who left herself open for a left leg kick that all but finished her.
“I don’t think she’s going to be able to deal with my striking,” Nunes told MMAFighting.Com. “She’s going to be really surprised when I touch her and connect with my punches.”
Some have suggested Rousey doesn’t deserve the title bout because of her layoff and the growing competition in the women’s bantamweight division.
But UFC president Dana White made in clear early on that when Rousey did return, it would be in a title fight. Rousey deserves it. Her three-year dominance of the division carried the UFC through the lean years before Conor McGregor became an attraction. She also made six successful title defenses, while each of her successors have lost in their first defense. Rousey should also come close to generating one million pay-per-view buys.
“Amanda Nunes is the champ. She’s holding the belt that Ronda held,” White said on FS1. “Ronda wants to win her title back. [The matchup] makes all the sense in the world.”
White also said Rousey was miffed by the backlash she received in the media after her loss. Athletes often have trouble when adulation turns to criticism. She may be forgetting it was the media that helped turn her into a global superstar with appearances on the cover of Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine.
“Her biggest issues were with the media,” White said. “She felt the media completely turned on her when she lost. She felt like these people in the media she gave three years of her life cruising around giving interviews to, completely turned on her when she lost. I’ve been doing this for 16 years and I’ve had my moments with the media. The media can irritate you. If you go through something traumatic like she did, losing and everything else and you have to listen to some of the things being written and said, I get it.”
It was the media that helped Rousey create an aura of invincibility. But that was shattered by Holm and must be rebuilt. Rousey tweeted a poster featuring her and Nunes with #Fearthereturn. No one fears Rousey right now.
“Ronda Rousey has been the biggest, baddest female fighter on the planet since we got into women’s fighting,” White said. “Ronda had a bad loss obviously and lost her title, but she’s still Ronda Rousey at the end of the day.”