UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta spoke recently with Sporting News during a private dinner, and detailed what is next for former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
Sporting News: How is Ronda doing after her defeat?
Lorenzo Fertitta: I went out to see her in L.A. Had some real good conversations with her. She is, as you would expect, very disappointed. Distraught, to some extent. She’s never lost. She never lost a fight in the Octagon. She never lost a fight in the street. She didn’t know what it was like. Right? … She is champing to be back in there. She made some commitments before the fight to make two movies. So she’s going to do that. Then get back to training in the Octagon.
SN: Like Gina Carano, Rousey has options in Hollywood. Does she want a rematch with Holm after getting KO’d?
LF: She has options. But let me tell you what. Ronda is the single most competitive person I’ve ever met in my life. If you don’t think she isn’t ready right now … She’s plotting her comeback. I don’t think anything can stop her from coming back.
SN: Where do you think UFC 200 will rank money-wise if there’s a rematch in July?
LF: I think it will be the biggest fight in UFC history. We certainly believe that as a company. I think the world will be interested in a rematch because it was a huge upset. So many people thought Ronda was just completely invincible. To see her get beat like that was a shock. They want to see if she can come back.
As Fertitta noted, Rousey has committed to two films.
She will star in a remake of the cult classic Road House.” and she will appear as a CIA agent in a film called Mile 22, co-starring Mark Wahlberg. She also reportedly has a commitment to a Warner Bros film, “The Athena Project.” And there is a planned biopic of her life, starring herself.
However, Ronda Rousey has a history of successfully training for a fight, while filming a Hollywood movie, overseas. So the timeline need not necessarily be movie 1, then movie 2, then start camp for a July fight.
Still, fans, and for the matter her detractors, cannot help but wonder if her extraordinary media schedule was a factor in her underwhelming performance against Holm. Rousey had better hope that it was, because the fight was so one-sided, without some significant change somewhere, it is hard to imagine a different fight.
July is just eight months away.
Filming two Hollywood movies and preparing for the biggest card in that span, while coming off a devastating loss, feels like part of the problem, rather than a solution to what happened. Rousey is as noted a ferociously competitive human being. Sometimes the role of a camp is to temper a fighter’s drive, insisting on rest and sleep and a uniquely focused quality of life.
