Will Ronda Rousey Return to the UFC in 2025? Latest Rumors and Predictions
By Zeeshan Ali November 06, 2025 09:28
The cage door swings shut with a metallic clang that echoes louder than any post-fight presser, and for a fleeting moment, the ghosts of UFC 193 and 207 flicker in the dim gym lights. Ronda Rousey, 38 and forged in the fires of armbars and Olympic judo, wraps her hands with the precision of a surgeon or a striker plotting her next kill shot. It's October 2025, and Rousey's Instagram reels pulse with mitt work and grappling drills, clips that have racked up 2.3 million views in two weeks, per social analytics firm HypeAuditor. Fans flood the comments: "Rowdy's back!" "Harrison vs. Rousey, book it!" But as the bantamweight division hums at its deepest six of the top 10 ranked fighters under 30, per UFC stats the question hangs like smoke after a knockout: Will Ronda return to the UFC in 2025, or is this just nostalgia's cruel hook?
Rousey's legacy isn't etched in hypotheticals; it's carved in milestones that redrew MMA's map. The inaugural women's bantamweight champ in 2012, she defended the strap six times, all finishes three KOs, nine submissions across her 12-0 start. Her 14-second demolition of Cat Zingano at UFC 184 drew 1.1 million PPV buys, a women's record that stood until McGregor-Holm in 2016. "Ronda didn't just win; she willed women's MMA into existence," UFC CEO Dana White reflected in a 2024 ESPN documentary. "She packed arenas when the naysayers said no one would watch." Yet glory's flip side was brutal: Back-to-back losses to Holly Holm (head kick TKO) and Amanda Nunes (12-8 KO) in 2015-16 exposed vulnerabilities, compounded by undisclosed concussions that Rousey later revealed had her "seeing colors" pre-fight. Retirement followed, a pivot to WWE where she claimed the Raw Women's Championship twice, headlining WrestleMania 34 with 78,133 in attendance.
Fast-forward to 2025, post-second child in January with husband Travis Browne, and the rumors ignite like a flare. Rousey's gym returns sparring with old foe Zingano in March, viral pad sessions in April coincide with a seismic shift: Kayla Harrison, Rousey's judo heir and two-time Olympic gold medalist, claiming the 135-pound belt at UFC 307 with a third-round submission of Julianna Peña, drawing 950,000 buys. Harrison's manager, Ali Abdelaziz, didn't mince words: "Ronda vs. Kayla? Biggest women's fight in history judokas collide, legacy on the line." Whispers of a trilogy with Miesha Tate, Rousey's conqueror in 2015, or a grudge match with Nunes fresh off her own 2025 comeback KO of Raquel Pennington bubble up on MMA forums, where a Sherdog poll pegs return odds at 62% among 45,000 voters.
The fuel? Rousey's own coyness. On "The Lapsed Fan" podcast in September, she quipped, "I'd never say never [about coming back], but I ain't fighting at the fcking White House. Even if it was offered, I got better sht to do." The quip nods to UFC's rumored July 2026 White House card for America's 250th White confirmed talks with D.C. officials, eyeing 1.5 million PPV potential but Rousey passed, citing politics over punches. Earlier, on The Breakfast Club radio, she channeled Mike Tyson: "No one's ever really done. Tyson's comeback showed you can rewrite the script." Her training montage with Luana Santos in July? "Inspiring," Santos posted on X, racking 150,000 likes, but it underscored Rousey's mentorship role more than mat dominance.
Yet the headwinds howl. Rousey's candor on health remains the anchor. In a June 2024 "Insight" podcast, she admitted, "I'm not neurologically fit to compete anymore at the highest level," detailing a "constellation" of concussions from MMA and WWE that left her with migraines and memory fog. A 2025 TMZ Sports sit-down post-baby echoed it: "I'm just trying to get my bodily identity back... training for the love of it, not the lights." White, ever the promoter, tempered hype in October: "Ronda's in great shape we talk but it's her call. Door's open, always." Still, his 2023 dismissal lingers: "Comeback rumors? Crock of sh*t."
Skeptics in the division amplify the doubt. At UFC Vegas 110 last weekend, No. 4-ranked Norma Dumont, fresh off a decision win over Joselyne Edwards, unloaded: "No chance Ronda returns. Women now are twice her size, with way better striking and grappling beyond her era." Dumont's point lands: Bantamweight's evolved Harrison tips the scales at 140 in camps (per FightMetric), Peña's sprawl-and-brawl clocks 4.2 takedowns per 15 minutes, and Nunes' power (17 KOs in 24 wins) dwarfs Rousey's 2016 form. X (formerly Twitter) buzzes with realism; a viral thread from MMA Fighting garnered 166,000 views: "Ronda's a pioneer, but 2025 UFC? She'd be 39, post-kids, vs. beasts like this? Nah."
Predictions? Split like a guard pass. Optimists eye a spring 2025 exhibition say, UFC 312 in Vegas against a mid-ranker like Dumont, banking on 1.2 million buys to eclipse her peak. "If she trains smart, avoids ground wars, her armbar's still gold," predicts Chael Sonnen on his "Beyond the Fight" pod, pegging 40% odds. Pessimists, led by Ariel Helwani, forecast zero: "Health first, legacy intact she's smarter than a sequel." Rousey's WWE exit in 2023 citing burnout mirrors her MMA fade; a June X post shut down both returns: "Done with the circus."
As November chills the California air, Rousey drills in a Venice Beach facility, her laughter cutting through the pads' thwacks. Motherhood's reshaped her two daughters demand more than dojos but the fire? It simmers. "Rediscovered my passion for MMA," she told MMA Junkie in September, eyes alight. Return or not, Rousey's the spark that lit the division's inferno. In a sport of what-ifs, her shadow looms eternal pioneer, provocateur, perhaps one last rowdy roar
LATEST
- NEWS
- |
- ARTICLES
- |
- VIDEOS
FAN ARCH PODCAST NETWORK
