Dana White explains why Ronda Rousey took so much time off

This week UFC President Dana White announced to MMA fans that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey would be making her highly anticipated return to the Octagon on December 30th to fight Amanda Nunes in the main event of UFC 207 for the women’s bantamweight championship.

The fight will take place over a year after Rousey’s last fight in the Octagon, where she was knocked out by Holly Holm in the main event of UFC 193 to lose the women’s bantamweight championship. Following the fight, UFC President Dana White was more than willing to give Rousey a break from the Octagon given that her loss was attributed in part to a busy media schedule that also saw her working in Hollywood while training to fight.

After announcing Rousey’s return, White joined Jay & Dan on Fox Sports 1 to discuss Rousey’s return, and why she took so much time off from the sport.

“The thing with Ronda is, she worked so hard for 3 years for us. Doing our stuff, her stuff, and she wanted some time off. If anybody deserved time off it was her, and we probably started talking about her coming back four months ago, and that’s it. She had a few nagging injuries, her elbows her knees, she went & got them scoped, cleaned out. Recovered fast, felt good in the gym again, and that’s it.”

“The thing that people have to understand about Ronda is she is so competitive. Who likes to lose? Nobody, but she’s like the next level. And I think she just wanted time. She had some issues, her biggest issues in my opinion were with the media. She just felt like the media completely turned on her when she lost.”

“Not abandoned [by the media] but attacked. She felt like, these people in the media that she gave three years of her life cruising around giving interviews to, completely turned on her when she lost.”

With Rousey’s return set for December 30th, do you think she will be able to not only make her successful return to the Octagon, but also reclaim the bantamweight title?