By Ronda Rousey’s standards 2016 has been eerily quiet compared to the previous year, where she barely seemed to go a day without being in the glare of the media spotlight, whether it was in high profile TV interviews, on the cover of magazines, winning awards or starring in Hollywood movies.
However, just a few weeks from her comeback fight against the new bantamweight champion of the world, Amanda Nunes, ‘Rowdy’ is suddenly back in a big way, with a slick stylish and expensive looking new trailer for UFC 207 focusing solely on Rousey premiering on TMZ, while she’s also just been unveiled as the star of a new series of Pantene commercials, and made an appearance on the Conan talk show.
However, Rousey told Conan O’Brien that she doesn’t intend to do the kind of time-intensive media tours that she used to in order to promote her upcoming fight.
“I mean, I’ve done a lot of learning in this last year and I’ve learned that the views I get and the money I make really doesn’t mean anything for me or my happiness,” Rousey said. “Now that I know the women’s division is secure, I don’t have to do that anymore. I choose not to. It’s not something I really get a kick off of like ‘ooh I want to spend 12 hours at ESPN and talk (expletive) all day’. That’s not really what I’d want to do.
“I want to go play World of Warcraft. So this time around I was like I’m not going to do that. I’m going to play World of Warcraft and then go train and then come back and chill out.”
Rousey also confirmed on the show that she is contemplating retirement sooner rather than later, but both the UFC and her fans will no doubt breathe a sigh of relief that she’s not planning on hanging up her gloves on December 30th after UFC 207 concludes.
“I don’t think after this fight,” Rousey said, “But definitely soon.”
And though some have questioned whether Rousey’s heart is still in the fight game, it appears that she’s taking her preparations for her fight with Nunes more seriously than ever, with her team revealing that even several weeks out from the fight she’s already walking around at a leaner than usual 140lbs, ensuring she’ll have no difficulty whatsoever making the 135lb bantamweight limit.
Check out a clip from Rousey’s interview with Conan and her two new Pantene commercials below.
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