Ronda Rousey‘s trainer, Edmond Tarverdyan, told the MMA Hour on Monday that he believes the UFC superstar may fight again, giving her a 50-50 chance to return to the Octagon.
“It’s going to be her decision,” he said (h/t Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com). “Maybe one more. I’ve spoken to her; I don’t know if she’ll do it. If her body does give her one more fight, and she really wants to, mentally, she might. It’s 50-50 right now, I’d say.”
He added: “I would love her to fight one more fight, and a fight I always wanted for her was [Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino] vs. Ronda. When I trained Ronda, I knew Ronda could beat Cyborg. I know that. Cyborg is too slow.
“I’m telling you, she’s too slow for us. Ronda would beat her. And Ronda needs a challenge. She really needs to be like, ‘This person is no good. I need to prove something to the whole world.’ That’s how Ronda works good. She didn’t have that with Holly [Holm] … This one, she has it.”
Rousey, 30, exploded onto the UFC scene, winning her first six fights by either submission, TKO or KO. Between July 2014 and Aug. 2015, she won three fights in a combined 64 seconds and emerged as one of the most popular and marketable UFC superstars.
That came to a halt at UFC 193 in Nov. 2015, however, after getting knocked out by Holm in the second round. A year later at UFC 207 she disappointed again, losing by TKO to Amanda Nunes in just 48 seconds.
A Cyborg-Rousey fight has long been desired by the fighting community, though Rousey’s recent defeats have made the matchup less scintillating. Okamoto also reported that Justino is “eyeing” a potential title fight vs. Holm this December, so a Cyborg-Rousey fight likely wouldn’t occur until sometime in 2018, if at all.
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