UFC 207: Ronda Rousey faces her date with destiny in bid to erase memory of devastating Holly Holm defeat

Rousey returns to the Octagon this Friday over a year after her UFC 193 defeat, and finds her MMA legacy on the line when she takes on bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes

Ronda Rousey faces Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 (Getty)

It’s been one of the craziest years in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's history, but it isn’t over yet.

UFC 207 takes place this Friday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and despite the card being hit with injuries and pull-outs in the last few days, it’s still going to be a show not to miss.

Rousey Returns

In the main event of the evening, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey returns to action following her loss to Holly Holm in November 2015.

Rousey lost her title to Holm in devastating fashion, suffering a second-round brutal knockout that will forever be remembered as one of the defining moments in UFC’s history. Prior to that fight with Holm, Rousey had been talked about as being unstoppable with twelve fights, twelve wins and twelve finishes to her name.

Some have said that the stardom that came with her success was her downfall, but that would be overlooking the technical flaws in her stand-up game that Holm so brilliantly capitalised on at UFC 193. Rousey was exposed, but like any true martial artist she’s gone away to develop her skills and has promised to come back a new fighter.

Holly Holm exposed serious flaws in Rousey's stand-up technique (Getty)

Rousey’s legacy on the line

It’s crazy to say, but Rousey’s history and legacy in mixed martial arts feels like it’s on the line on Friday and the pressure must be incredible.

Rousey is a phenomenal fighter and has done amazing things both for herself and for the sport, but whether she can return from such a dramatic fall from grace remains to be seen.

For the majority of the viewing public and MMA fans, they won’t remember her wins over Miesha Tate in Strikeforce or her wins over Sara McMann, Alexis Davis, Cat Zingano or Bethe Correia in the UFC – instead they will remember her worst night and to date her one and only bad night in the Octagon.

Rousey suffered the first defeat of her career at UFC 193 in November 2015 (Getty)

On Friday she gets the chance to change all that, but she’s not chosen the same path as a certain Irishman who earlier this year came back from a devastating loss to once again sit on top of the pile as the UFC’s biggest star.

Media blackout

In the build-up to this fight on Friday, Rousey has refused to talk to the majority of the media and the promotional activity before has felt lacklustre compared to the Conor McGregor show that has accompanied no fewer than three of the company’s biggest pay-per-view events this year.

Her refusal to do media has rubbed a lot of media up the wrong way and that includes myself for a brief period.

Not being able to ask a simple question on a telephone conference call or being able to watch her complete an open workout limits our ability to do our own jobs and frankly gives us all the opportunity in the world to speculate about her mentality and her mind-set.

Rousey has kept herself away from the media in the lead up to the fight (Getty)

Rather than guess and say she’s mentally broken, I’ll instead reference a conversation I had with the late Josh Samman, a talented UFC middleweight who unfortunately lost his life earlier in this year.

Outside of the cage Josh was himself a writer and had a profound ability to express himself in ways that most fighters feel unable to. When discussing Rousey before, Josh said to me: “I’m not much of a Ronda fan, but she shines in interviews sometimes. One I thing I loved is what she said after the Holm loss, that she was grieving the version of her that could have done everything and I can relate to that.

“We all want to think we are great enough to do it all. Most times we are only great enough to do at least one thing if we are exceptional. The talent pool is a thing in my realm, and the consequences are dire.”

The state of Rousey's mind after her UFC 193 loss is not yet known (Getty)

It sends a shiver down my spine reading that back because I know he was a man who felt the weight of defeat heavily and Josh never experienced a loss as devastating or high profile as Rousey’s.

As media, we can sit around all day speculating the mental state of a woman we neither really know nor have heard much from in the last year or so. Instead, I’ll choose to see what happens on Friday and pass judgement then rather than on what I’ve witnessed during fight week.

Friday night is her moment of truth

That said, many of the media won’t be as forgiving.

Rousey’s silence has only encouraged her critics to sharpen the pencils for another potential failure.

There’s so much fanfare that surrounds big fights these days it’s easy to forget what ultimately matters. Rousey not doing an open workout or press conference in the build-up will matter for very little come Friday night when the cage door closes.

At that point nothing else matters – it’s fight time.

Write Rousey off all you want, but I wouldn’t bet against her leaving the Octagon with her demons conquered and with the UFC women’s bantamweight title on one of her shoulders.

At that point I also wouldn’t rule out it being goodbye forever.