Chael Sonnen rules out Ronda Rousey's UFC return, warns: 'The sport is done with her'

R. Rousey has been retired from MMA since 2016. Photo: Reproduction/Facebook RondaRousey

After Ronda Rousey publish some videos on social media where she trained with new coaches and confessed to “rediscovering her love for the sport,” many fans around the world began to speculate about the judoka’s return to the octagon, possibly at the event scheduled for the White House in July 2026. Despite the expectations formed, Chael Sonnen was one of the personalities in the field who came forward to treat the matter with disapproval and distrust.

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In a video posted on his YouTube channel Last Monday (22), the American Gangster did not show hope in a new chapter of Ronda's MMA career, in addition to citing the traumatic way in which the former bantamweight champion (up to 61.2 kg.) said goodbye to the sport.

"There's this idea that when someone starts training and they sweat a little bit, they're touted as coming back, but then an adult comes into the room and says, 'Hey, it's not a comeback. You were forced out.' It's not retirement when they throw you out of the Octagon," Sonnen said.

Chael Sonnen in video on YouTube. Photo: Reproduction/Youtube

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Continuing his line of reasoning, the former fighter expressed empathy by citing the desire all athletes have to continue competing at the highest level. However, he also stated that, with few exceptions, most of them find themselves excluded from major competitions after negative results.

"There's never a day when you want to quit this sport. You'll 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 welcome to stay, and they made their own decision not to go,” concluded Sonnen, who also ended his career with a knockout loss.

Ronda Rousey is an MMA legend

Ronda entered the UFC Hall of Fame. Photo: Reproduction / Twitter UFC

After changing the media landscape of MMA as a whole in the last decade as champion and inaugurating the women's categories in the UFC from 2013, Ronda had a steep drop in terms of results and popularity after being knocked out by Holly holm in 2015. The following year, the American returned against Amanda nunes and was once again dominated. Since then, she has not competed professionally again and has dedicated herself to pro wrestling and other activities. She was inducted into the Ultimate Hall of Fame in 2018.

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