Ronda Rousey’s Coach Suggests Concussions, Weight Cutting Prevent UFC Return

The latest we’ve heard about former UFC champion Ronda Rousey, she was only fighting on NBC’s “Blindspot” and announcing her engagement to boyfriend Travis Browne.

There’s been next to no discussion of her fighting future aside from some cryptic online posts in the months after her first-round TKO loss to Amanda Nunes at December 30’s UFC 207, her second straight knockout loss.

Most, including UFC President Dana White, believe she’s highly unlikely to return to the notoriously brutal sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), and indeed it probably wouldn’t be a surprise if we never saw ‘Rowdy’ return to the octagon she dominated with a streak of six straight title fight stoppages from February 2013 to August 2015.

After two brutal TKO losses, it’d be easy to blame the perception that the women’s bantamweight division has just passed her by, but that’s not the case according to her judo coach Jason Flores, who told Submission Radio (via MMA Mania) that she most likely wouldn’t return because the lifelong grind of competing to be the best finally caught up to Rousey:

“Personally I don’t think it’s in the cards. I don’t think that’s what she wants in this time of her life. I mean, I’m not discounting anything. Maybe later. But I just don’t see that being something she wants to jump into and focus full force to be the best. Because if she’s gonna do anything, from what I know about her, she’s gonna do it to be the best. And not that I don’t think that she can be the best, it’s just, I just don’t know if her body and her mind at this stage in her life, if that’s what’s right for her. She’s competed her whole life. Her whole life has been about being the best, and I just think personally, the best thing is for her to kind of be okay with herself not as a fighter.”

Flores detailed the struggles of Rousey’s career that we don’t see in the public eye, citing multiple operations and weight cutting among other other undesired consequences of the game, for why she’s ready to call it a career at 30 years old. Apparently ‘Rowdy’s’ ready to live a long and healthy life with Browne and their family, so fighting simply isn’t part of that any longer:

I just know the pain she’s gone through physically, doing this forever, multiple surgeries, concussions, broken bones, weight cutting. All those things add up and take its toll, and it’s accumulative. So being 30 years old now and doing this since you were eight years old non-stop, I mean, the mileage you’ve put on your body and that she’s put on her body, I just don’t think if she wants to, you know, live a long happy life and raise kids with Travis, which I know that’s the future, I just don’t think that’s something I feel like would be in her best interests.”