Nunes vs. Shevchenko: Fighting in the Shadow of a Ronda Rousey Comeback

Amanda Nunes (Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC)

In the first fight of Saturday night's UFC 196 main card, Amanda Nunes (11-4) and Valentina Shevchenko (12-1) will collide in an awesome bit of women's bantamweight matchmaking. Nunes, who hails from Brazil and fights out of American Top Team, will enter the fight on the heels of first-round maulings of women's MMA pioneer Shayna Baszler and former title challenger Sara McMann. Kyrgyzstan's Shevchenko, meanwhile, will walk onto the canvas having extended her streak to 5 with a December defeat of Sarah Kaufman.

Needless to say, Nunes and Shevchenko stand out as two of the bantamweight division's very best fighters, and under normal circumstances, theirs would be a fairly clear cut number-one-contender bout. Yet circumstances are far from normal in today's women's bantamweight division, and that fact can be attributed to one woman: Ronda Rousey.

Despite losing her title to Holly Holm (who will defend that same title against Miesha Tate in UFC 196's co-main event) Rousey still casts a sprawling shadow over the division she once ruled. She may no longer be the champion, but she remains one of MMA's biggest stars, and is the highest-profile fight for any female bantamweight on earth.

Since her shocking, November loss to Holm, Rousey has sat on the bench, nursing her wounds—both physical and emotional. Yet as those wounds continue to heal, and the ongoing history of the women's bantamweight division continues to unfurl, whispers of a Rousey comeback continue to pick up steam. Though rumors that the former champ would return at July's UFC 200 have been squashed, she is still expected to return before the year is out. And when she does, she will take on the winner of Holm and Tate's UFC 196 title fight.

Yet while Rousey has recently touched on her much-discussed comeback, telling TMZ that she hopes Holm defeats Tate because a rematch with Holm is all she wants, that comeback is far from set in stone. The former champ may yet decide a comeback isn't actually what she desires.

In a recent interview with MMA Junkie, for example, she acknowledged that she has been surprisingly happy in her time away from fighting. And because Rousey is filling her bank account with acting gigs and magazine shoots, it seems that the only real reason she has to return to the Octagon is her pride. And unshakable as that pride may be, the sting of her loss to Holm is likely to lessen as time wears on. Eventually, Rousey may decide that avenging that loss is not worth the effort, and choose the glitz and glamor of Hollywood over the scrapes and bruises of the hurt biz.

If that sounds familiar, that's because there is precedent in the case of former Strikeforce star Gina Carano. After losing to Cris "Cyborg" Justino, Carano chose to hang up the gloves, and focus instead on just the kind of Hollywood work that Rousey is currently enjoying. And while Rousey has accomplished far more as a fighter than Carano ever did, it would not be shocking to see her follow in Carano's footsteps in this respect. And considering her preeminent role in putting women's MMA on the map, and her status as one of the most dominant champions in MMA history, we could hardly fault if she made such a decision. She's accomplished more than most fighters could ever dream of, so her retirement from competition—whenever it begins—is well deserved.

If Rousey were to hang up the gloves, however, the women's bantamweight division would be forced to trundle on without her. In such an event, the next big step would probably be a title fight pairing the winner of Nunes and Shevchenko with the winner of Holm and Tate. So, while Nunes and Shevchenko's fight, which would generally be a fairly obvious title eliminator, is somewhat overshadowed by the possibility of a Rousey comeback, it may yet produce the division's next title challenger. If Rousey were to decide not to return—or even delay her return—there would simply be no female bantamweights more deserving of the next shot than the Shevchenko-Nunes winner.

Of course, even if Rousey does return as planned, which is perfectly likely given her indomitable competitive spirit, Nunes and Shevchenko's UFC 196 bout is still very important, as the victor would probably take on the winner of Rousey's return bout with Holm or Tate. Really, no matter how you swing it, Nunes and Shevchenko's Saturday night showdown is a crucial point in the continued evolution of the women's bantamweight division—whether Rousey is a part of that division or not. So do not expect either woman to take this UFC 196 scrap lightly.