Don’t be fooled by Ronda Rousey’s training videos, says UFC legend

Ronda Rousey recently said she’s finding her love for MMA again after posting training videos, but one UFC Hall of Famer advises fans to not be fooled.

Rousey has been out of pro MMA competition since she was stopped by Amanda Nunes in 48 seconds back in late 2016. After she dominated the women’s bantamweight division and secured a perfect record of 12-0, “Rowdy” suffered back-to-back finishing losses before transitioning to the world of pro wrestling. Rousey hasn’t been under WWE contract since 2023 and she got fans buzzing with her MMA training videos.

In a new video posted on his YouTube channel, Chael Sonnen stressed that he believes the sport of MMA left Rousey behind almost a decade ago (h/t MMAJunkie).

“There is just this idea that when somebody goes out there and they break a sweat or they used to do this sport and they dangle this idea of a return,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel, “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 ass out of the cage.

“There’s never a day that you want to be done with this sport. You will wake up and find out one day that the sport is done with you, with three exceptions: Georges St-Pierre, Khabib (Nurmagomedov) and Jon Jones. They all had belts, they all left on top, and they were all wanted and welcomed to stay, and they made their own decision that they were not going to.”

Rousey has admitted to suffering from mental health issues following her losses under the UFC banner. While she found success early on with her WWE run, she also didn’t exactly leave the wrestling industry gracefully. Rousey recently criticized WWE for booking her in a program with one of the company’s most popular female stars, Alexa Bliss.