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UFC Champ Ronda Rousey Could Retire Sooner Than You Might Think

Jose Aldo: ‘Men’s MMA is at a Higher Level Than Women’s’

Ronda Rousey’s career in the Octagon may be reaching previously unseen heights, but you better enjoy it while you can. She may not be fighting much longer.

Although UFC president Dana White at one time thought there would never be women in the Octagon, he is now all too happy to admit he was wrong about females competing in mixed martial arts… all thanks to Rousey.

When the UFC finally took the leap and added the women’s 135-pound division in order to capitalize on Rousey’s star power, no one could have envisioned the icon she has become.

She’s 12-0 in the cage, with only one of those fights going outside of the first round. Once criticized as a one-trick pony, Rousey has knocked out three of her last four opponents. She’s setting records left and right. She reportedly has the most-viewed pay-per-view of the year thus far, and was recently called upon to headline UFC 193 on Nov. 14 in Melbourne, Australia, where the UFC will attempt to attract its largest crowd ever.

The first and only UFC women’s bantamweight champion is doing as much outside of the Octagon. She’s been featured by many media outlets that would hardly touch the UFC in the past. Rousey is also starring in full-length Hollywood feature films like The Expendables and Fast and Furious franchises, not just third-rate martial arts movies that no one has ever heard of. She made the Top 10 on the Forbes list of highest paid female athletes for 2015.

Her list of achievements goes on and on, but she hasn’t even hit her full stride yet.

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“The scary thing about Ronda Rousey is, as good as she is, she’s getting better. She’s just getting into her prime right now,” White said on ESPN recently, and Rousey concurs.

“It just seems unfinished. My career, there's more left to do,” Rousey said on a recent Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “I don't feel like I'm done yet. Because with the Olympics, it's just like you win the gold medal and you're done. With the UFC, when am I really done? I’m not. It feels unfinished still.”

At first glance, that would indicate that we’ve got many, many years of Rousey in the Octagon to come, right? Wrong.

In her next breath, Rousey admitted that she has a rough timeline for her exit already in mind, and it could come a lot sooner than we might expect.

“I'm not going to be doing this in my thirties,” Rousey continued. “I don't want to be fighting into my thirties. By thirties, I mean like 31, 32. If you’re actually 30 years old, that’s 30, not thirties. Once you add the one, that’s thirties, plural. I’m 28.”

Doing the math, that leaves us with the possibility that Rousey might only fight for another 3 or 4 years.

She mentioned that her UFC career doesn’t yet feel complete. She admitted that one of the key elements to it not feeling complete was not yet having fought Cris “Cyborg” Justino.

Nearly everyone wants to see them fight, but from the beginning, there has been a quarrel about what weight such a fight would take place at. Rousey is the UFC champ at 135 pounds, while Cyborg rules the roost at 145 for Invicta FC.

Everyone is familiar with the argument. The UFC is the premiere organization in the world. Rousey is the champ in that organization. She and the UFC want any fight with Cyborg to be in her weight class. Those that don’t care about the belt and just want to see the fight and, of course, Cyborg herself, would rather the fight took place at a 140-pound catchweight, at minimum.

At the end of the day, however, it’s unlikely Rousey and the UFC will waver, often citing Cyborg’s past infraction for steroid use, and Rousey's insinuation that Cyborg is likely still using.

“When you look at these people from before they were using and after, they look entirely different. Cyborg looks in ways exactly the same (as she did before she got caught),” said Rousey. “If she gets off, it will be very easy for her to make weight. (It’s) what we’ve seen from every other person that’s got off it. I can’t say with proof or anything, but if you look the exact same as you did when you were using, then what changed?”

For those wanting to see more of Rousey, perhaps it’s a good thing the Cyborg fight has yet to happen. Having wrecked everyone else, that may be what’s keeping Rousey in the game.

She’s going to wait for Cyborg to make the decision to get down to 135 pounds, but she’s not going to wait forever. And she certainly doesn’t sound like she’ll relent on requiring the fight be at bantamweight.

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“If she never steps up, I’ll know (why),” Rousey said. “I’ll probably go a little longer waiting for her, but you know, if she showed up sooner rather than later, I don’t know how much longer I would (fight) after that.”

So how much longer does Rousey stay in the game? What's left for her to achieve if the Cyborg fight never materializes? Those are questions that only time can answer… and we may be running out of it.

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