The rumors about Ronda Rousey returning to MMA continue to surface on social media as UFC fighter Chelsea Chandler has recently said that she had heard that the WWE star would be returning to the featherweight division of the UFC.
Rousey’s return to UFC was expected once her rival Amanda Nunes retired from the game and left the bantamweight title vacant. However, Chandler’s statement that the WWE superstar will join the featherweight division means she will not have to cut a lot of weight to make her MMA comeback.
Chelsea Chandler says she has heard Ronda Rousey is coming back to the Featherweight division #UFCVegas77 pic.twitter.com/6MqdcjqiW7
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) July 12, 2023
Chandler was of the opinion that this could be a good opportunity for Ronda Rousey because there is no bantamweight champion in the promotion currently.
“There really is no Bantamweight champion,” Chandler said at UFC Vegas 77 media day. “But I’ve been hearing Ronda’s coming back at ‘45. So, you never know.”- she added.
While everyone was expecting Rousey to come back in the bantamweight division, it looks like the fighter has something else in mind.
Ronda last fought in the promotion in December, 2016 at UFC 207. She lost the fight under a minute to Amanda Nunes and that marked the end to her 14-fight UFC career. She then moved to pro-wrestling and joined WWE.
Why is Ronda Rousey leaving WWE?
Pro-wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer has said on Wrestling Observer Radio that Ronda Rousey is planning to leave the company before the next WrestleMania. She gave a hard out to the company that she would be leaving much before WrestleMania.
Rousey has been unhappy with the WWE women’s division as well as she has said that there is not much competition in the division and the current roster is trying everything it can make to something work.
She also advised the company to invest in the tag-team property of the women’s division.
“Well, the lack of competition is really the problem. I mean, we want to be the most active champions out there. I want to be able to defend this title every week and even twice a week on both SmackDown and Raw.”
“But with how dismally shallow the women’s division is right now, there’s not enough women around here to keep us busy for a month. And so that’s the biggest challenge that we have is to get this company to actually care and invest into this tag division.” – expressed Rousey.
It is expected that Ronda Rousey’s time in WWE is going to end with a storyline which involves a feud with her tag team partner Shayna Baszler.