Weighing the Options of Ronda Rousey

Last Saturday, in the main event of UFC 193, a Holly Holm high kick sent the bantamweight crown flying from the head of Ronda Rousey. It was one of the greatest upsets in UFC history.

The victory, which saw Holm dominate from the opening bell to the fight's terminating impact, has completely upended the bantamweight division. Women like Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano, who have already lost to Rousey, now re-emerge as credible title challengers, having not yet tangled with the new champion. Other women who would have been hard sells as challengers to Rousey's throne might make for easier sells against Holm. Yes, Holm's historic kick has given the bantamweight division a facelift, transforming it from The Ronda Rousey Show to a more open field of play. It's all very exciting.

Holm's unforgettable win does raise one massive question: what's next for Ronda Rousey?

Well, as you probably guessed, the former champion has a multitude of options at her feet.

The first and most likely option for Rousey is a do-over with Holm. These days, immediate rematches are a dime a dozen. Chris Weidman's first title defense was against Anderson Silva; the man he took the belt from. Fabricio Werdum's first defense, similarly, is expected to be against Cain Velasquez. If we're to believe these former champions deserve the chance to reclaim their titles, then Rousey surely does too. Though she had little to offer Holm on Saturday night, she was an incredibly dominant champion, and is almost solely responsible for propelling women's MMA to its current, mainstream station. At the UFC 193 post-fight press conference, company president Dana White acknowledged these facts, stating that a rematch between the new and former champions "makes a lot of sense."

Of course, there is no guarantee this is the fight we'll actually get.

Rousey, after all, announced her intention to take some time off in a brief, post-fight statement posted to her Instagram. And really, she deserves a break. Over the last few years, she has spent enough time in the spotlight to warrant constant applications of sunscreen. She's had a busy fight schedule. She's starred in movies. She's made appearances on talk shows, done magazine shoots, and published a biography. She's been a frantically busy woman and if, in the wake of her rather brutal loss, she's keen on taking a few months to decompress, we can't fault her.

This, however, means the division will have to move on without her. Yes, provided Holm is healthy; she may make her first defense before Rousey is ready for a comeback. In that event, Rousey would return to her first non-title bout since 2011. So who might her dance partner be?

One possibility is Brazil's Amanda Nunes. Despite a stoppage loss to Cat Zingano in the not-too-distant past, Nunes has bounced back with a pair of dominant victories that have her eager to make her final steps to title contention. No fight would be more effective in this regard than a bout with the former queen.

Another, similar option for Rousey would be Julianna Peña. Peña, who was the first-ever female winner of The Ultimate Fighter, has made sporadic calls for a bout with Rousey in the past. And while she hadn't really earned the bout at the time of those callouts, she's now a bona fide, top-10 bantamweight. So, with Rousey having been pried from the throne, the bout suddenly makes sense. It would give Peña the fight she's been begging for, and Rousey a reasonable re-entry into the fray.

Of course, given Rousey's iconic status, she'll probably get a big name in her first fight back. If that name isn't Holly Holm, it could very well be Miesha Tate.

Rousey and Tate have met twice before, with the latter losing both encounters by armbar. All the same, Tate remains Rousey's most visible rival. The two have exchanged plenty of barbs in the past, continuing right up to the hours after Rousey's defeat, when Tate made no secret of her elation with the upset. And given Tate's current four-fight win-streak, a third fight between the two rivals suddenly makes more sense than ever.

The major barrier to this booking, however, is that if Rousey doesn't get the first crack at Holm, Tate almost certainly will. The only way the two rivals are likely to meet, then, is if someone like Nunes or Zingano were to provide Holm's first challenge—which seems unlikely.

This brings us to a final and truly compelling option for Ronda Rousey: A long-awaited scrap with Invicta FC featherweight queen Cris "Cyborg" Justino. Rousey vs. Cyborg has long stood out as WMMA's Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva. The dominance of these two women in their respective divisions has rendered their potential pairing a true and irrefutable super fight. And while one might posit that Rousey's loss diminishes the demand for this bout, it may actually serve to strengthen it.

While Cyborg is not the polished striker Holm is, she does seem to pack more of a wallop and is certainly more aggressive. After witnessing Rousey's difficulties with Holm, then, its hard not to wonder if Cyborg could accomplish the same result—and maybe even do it faster. Of course, the same questions about Cyborg's ability to cope with Rousey's vaunted judo—her aggression would seem to play right into it—are as prevalent as ever. So really, Rousey's title loss only gives rise to more questions as to how she and Cyborg would fair against one another. Why not finally pull the trigger and put this bout together?

Ronda Rousey is at a defining moment in her career. As a host of fighters, from Oscar De La Hoya to Anderson Silva have suggested, the way that she rebounds from this loss will play a major part in the development of her larger legacy. And while there's always the chance she follows in the footsteps of her predecessor Gina Carano who, after a nasty loss to Cyborg, left the fight game for the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, let's consider what we know about Rousey. She's a lifelong competitor with an unquestionable work ethic and an insatiable desire to win. So, she's probably far more likely to follow in the footsteps of Georges St-Pierre who, after a shocking loss to Matt Serra in 2007, returned to look better than ever.

Whoever welcomes Rousey back to the Octagon, then, better be ready.