It wasn’t all that long ago that Ronda Rousey was considered the most dominant female MMA fighter in the world.
That time has now decisively passed.
Defending bantam weight champion Amanda Nunes trounced Rousey to the point that the UFC 207 title fight was stopped after just 48 seconds tonight.
Nunes was widely regarded as an underdog, but Rousey never had a chance once she touched gloves with the Brazilian known to fans as the Lioness.
Nunes pummeled Rousey with a barrage of jabs, putting the former champ on a defensive campaign from which she never recovered.
At the 48-second mark of the first round of what was billed as the matchup of the year, the judges took mercy on Rousey and called the fight in favor of her 28-year-old opponent.
A stunned Rousey kept her eyes cast to the ground as the fight was announced in favor of an opponent she had sworn to beat in her few media appearances of the past 13 months.
Rousey lost the UFC bantamweight title when she was defeated by Holly Holm in November of 2015.
Shortly thereafter, Holm lost the title to Miesha Tate, who later lost it to Nunes.
Rousey’s comeback effort was billed by both her PR team and the UFC simply as “the return.”
It seems Ronda wasn’t the only one who underestimated Amanda Nunes.
Born in Brazil but trained in New Jersey and Tennessee, Nunes now boasts a record of 14-4.
While a number of MMA analysts expected her to offer a formidable challenge to Rousey, few – if any – expected her to make such short work of the sport’s most recognized figure.
As early as this week, Rousey was sharing chiseled selfies on Instagram in order to demonstrate that she was in the best shape of her career and send a message of intimidation to her less-celebrated opponent.
It now seems that message fell on deaf ears.
Rousey was open about her struggle with depression following her defeat by Holm, causing many to question if she was emotionally fit to return to the ring.
The future of her career now remains uncertain.
At the moment, it looks as though UFC founder Dana White might do best to hang his future hopes on the newly anointed queen of the octagon, Amanda Nunes.
