Ronda Rousey has been the most active UFC champion of late, fighting three times in the past seven months, but the MMA superstar will be forced to slow down due to several injuries.
UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta revealed the women’s bantamweight champ suffered a right hand injury in her 16-second destruction of Alexis Davis at UFC 175 last weekend. According to a report on Fox Sports 1’s UFC Tonight, it is a broken thumb that won’t require a cast or surgery.
Unrelated to the broken thumb, Rousey required stitches on her right hand after a cyst burst during her fight with Davis. Rousey also divulged at the UFC 175 post-fight press conference that she is scheduled to undergo minor knee surgery.
“All the ligaments are fine, there’s just stuff floating around in there,” Rousey told reporters after the July 5 event in Las Vegas. “It’s just something that’s more maintenance that I need to do, so it’s not really a major knee surgery at all. It’s just a scope. I literally walk out of there.”
The 27-year-old from Venice, Calif., has had multiple knee operations over the past decade. Rousey, a 2008 Olympic bronze medallist in judo, tore her ACL when she was 16 and explained she underwent “knee surgery pretty much every two years.”
It’s unknown at this time how long Rousey will be out of action, but she is expected to return before the end of the year. “Right hand, right knee, but I’m left handed. So it’s all good,” and optimistic Rousey added.
There had been some discussion that Rousey could potentially headline UFC 176 on short notice to save the card – which was cancelled after the main event fell through – but her injuries did not allow her to do that.
Rousey is 10-0 as a pro, 4-0 in the UFC and has become arguably the biggest star in MMA despite debuting in the sport in 2011.
