Ronda Rousey‘s name is echoing through MMA circles again, but this time it’s not about her WWE career or her motherhood journey. Nearly a decade after her final walk to the Octagon, speculations of a comeback have resurfaced, fueled by training videos she posted online. Many, including Ariel Helwani, find the thought almost surreal. Rousey, once disgusted by the sport and visibly broken in her final fights, now seems to be entertaining the idea of coming back.

Her downfall remains etched in memory. After six consecutive defenses in women’s bantamweight, Ronda Rousey’s aura shattered in 2015 against Holly Holm. Eleven months later, she was dismantled by Amanda Nunes in under a minute, a loss that pushed her into silence.

“Seemed so disgusted with MMA” – Ariel Helwani on Ronda Rousey being “Broken”

She avoided eye contact, neglected media duties, and appeared to be a shell of the fighter who was previously considered untouchable. That version of Rousey wasn’t just beaten; she was stripped of joy, and her disgust for MMA’s unforgiving nature was obvious. Ariel Helwani, who has seen plenty of wild storylines in MMA, couldn’t even hide his disbelief at this one.

On his show, as speculation about a potential UFC card at the White House heated up, Helwani stated that he never expected Ronda Rousey to be mentioned again. “I don’t think this is just testing the waters,” he said on The Ariel Helwani Show. He further added, “I think there is interest. And I’ll also say this: I never thought that would happen. She seemed so disgusted with MMA, with the community, with the fans.”

As for the final version of ‘Rowdy’ that us fans got to see, she seemed like a broken warrior to the MMA insider. “She seemed like a shell of herself,” Helwani said. “She seemed broken.” That brokenness helps explain why Rousey walked away. In her memoir, she later confessed that repeated concussions drove her to retire when she thought she was at her peak.

“I was forced to leave fighting when I was faster, stronger, more skilled, and had a better understanding of the art than ever before,” she wrote. “It was a really hard decision to understand, one that my body made for me.” Now, over ten years later, the tone is changing. Rousey, now a mother of two, has uploaded training videos in which she admits to feeling self-conscious at first but then discovered joy again.

While that doesn’t erase her brutal exit, it does show a version of Rousey re-engaging with MMA on her own terms. That’s why Helwani’s shock is significant. If Rousey, once the face of women’s MMA and now its most reluctant exile, is really considering a return during one of the UFC’s most ambitious event pushes, the story becomes bigger than nostalgia. But while the MMA journalist is still on the fence about the rumors, a UFC legend has outright dismissed them.

‘Rowdy’s UFC return gets dismissed by legend Chael Sonnen

While Ariel Helwani speculates about Rousey returning to the Octagon, Chael Sonnen has taken a much tougher stance. The former title contender, who has direct experience with brutal comebacks, views her potential return as a harsh reality check: MMA doesn’t wait for anyone, and the sport often moves on even if a fighter isn’t ready.

“There is just this idea that when somebody goes out there and breaks a sweat or they used to do this sport and they dangle this idea of a return,” Sonnen said. “But then an adult steps in the room and goes ‘hey, it’s not a return’. You were forced out, it’s not a retirement when they throw your a– out of the cage. There’s never a day when you want to be done with this sport; you will wake up and find out one day that the sport is done with you.”

Sonnen also highlighted the rarity of fighters leaving on their own terms, mentioning Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Jon Jones as examples. For Ronda Rousey, whose career ended with catastrophic knockout losses and persistent concussion issues, his statements highlight the truth that even great champions have limitations, no matter how much they want to return.