The will-she, won’t-she rumors can finally be laid to rest as Dana White has confirmed that Ronda Rousey WON’T be fighting at the historic UFC 200 event in Las Vegas in July.
White told Yahoo! Sports that Rousey had asked for more time off following her KO loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November which means their hopes of having her head into an immediate rematch with the new champion at UFC 200 have now been dashed.
According to White, Rousey’s leading role in the remake of cult 80’s movie ‘Road House’ is the main reason behind her delay in returning to the Octagon, with filming having been pushed back which would have left her too little time to fully prepare for the fight.
“She could do both, but why should she?” White stated. “The filming is in a time frame where she’d finish before 200, but it would be cutting it too close.”
That’s the reason why it’s now been officially confirmed that Holm will now make her first bantamweight title defense against Miesha Tate instead in the co-main event event of the newly announced UFC 197 event on March 6th which will be headlined by another title affair as Conor McGregor goes up to challenger of the lightweight belt against Rafael dos Anjos.
The extra time off is a good thing for Rousey who’s been on a rollercoaster ride over the past few years that’s continued even after her first defeat, as evidenced by the fact that she’ll be hosting Saturday Night Live later this month, while last week the internet went into meltdown after news emerged of her appearing in a sexy body body paint photo-shoot for Sports Illustrated magazine.
Having said that it’s definitely the lure of Hollywood that’s Rousey’s main distraction right now, though it should be noted that just hours before White’s announcement yesterday it was revealed that the UFC superstar’s role in another high profile upcoming movie, ‘Mile 22’ has been reduced.
According to the New Yorker, Mile 22 had previously called for Rousey to have a higher profile role alongside main star Mark Wahlberg, but her role has now been cut back and includes more action and less acting.
