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MMA

12th Oct 2016

It’s official! Ronda Rousey is going to return to the Octagon before the year is out

'Rowdy' returns

Darragh Murphy

She’s back!

Ronda Rousey is ready, willing and able to start rivalling Conor McGregor’s pay-per-view figures once more after it was announced that the former long-time UFC women’s bantamweight champion had signed on the dotted line to make her comeback.

For the first time in her UFC career, ‘Rowdy’ will take to the Octagon in the role of title challenger as she gets the chance to reclaim her belt in the main event of UFC 207.

UFC president Dana White took to The Herd with Colin Cowherd to confirm that Rousey would take on reigning champion Amanda Nunes on the December 30 card in Las Vegas.

Rousey hasn’t fought in almost a year, having been knocked out in brutal style by Holly Holm last November in Rousey’s first ever professional defeat.

UFC 193: Rousey v Holm

It was suggested that we had seen the last of the California native on a UFC mat such was the viciousness of the loss but the knockout was not enough to strip Rousey of the fighting spirit that propelled her to the pinnacle of mixed martial arts.

In spite of the record-breaking fights put on by McGregor in 2016, UFC president Dana White insists that Rousey is still the biggest superstar on the organisation’s roster and after licking her wounds, the return is on for the 29-year-old.

She remains the only fighter in UFC history to have defended the women’s bantamweight title, as the belt switched hands on two occasions ever since she parted ways with it in Melbourne, Australia last year.

Holm fell at the first hurdle when she succumbed to an unforgettable comeback from Miesha Tate at UFC 196 before Tate failed to defend the strap in the main event of UFC 200 in July as she was steamrolled by Amanda Nunes.

UFC 200: Tate v Nunes

Nunes is likely to enter the bout as underdog considering the supremacy with which Rousey ruled the division for two years before she was upset by Holm.

The bout remains the only confirmed fight for UFC 207.

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