UFC 207 Preview: Rousey finally returns against Nunes, looking to reclaim championship gold

Not since March of 2012 has “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey entered a mixed martial arts cage as a title challenger.

On Friday, she will again.

Not since November of 2015 has Rousey competed inside the caged confines of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s octagon.

On Friday, she will return.

Awaited, anticipated and elongated, Rousey’s return comes longer removed than many had thought; it comes as a quiet storm absent of the usual media barrage and it comes with mysterious intrigue as to whether the ultra-confident, utterly dominant force who changed the world will return to form or Amanda Nunes will confirm her status as the new bantamweight queenpin.

The answer will come Friday night at UFC 207 from Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, with Rousey (12-1, 6-1 in UFC) challenging women’s bantamweight champion Nunes (13-4, 6-1) in the main event of the pay-per-view portion of the card, which begins at 7 p.m.

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Rousey, the first American woman to medal in Olympics judo when she won a bronze medal in 2008, was the driving force in bringing women’s mixed martial arts to the UFC.

She, along with women’s fighting, debuted at UFC 157 in February of 2013 when she armbarred Liz Carmouche in the first round to defend her UFC championship. It was a championship that’s lineage carried over from the Strikeforce title won by Rousey in March of 2012 against Miesha Tate. It was the birth of a heated Rousey-Tate rivalry and a fight that caught the attention of UFC President Dana White, leading to the induction of the 135-pound women’s division into the UFC.

The first Rousey-Tate clash was also the first title match for Rousey, who has trained at the Glendale Fighting Club under Edmond Taverdyan for the duration of her MMA career. On Friday, Rousey will fight in her 10th consecutive title match (eighth within the UFC), only she will be the challenger for the first time since she dethroned Tate on March 3, 2012.

“I want to be able to walk away with my head held high,” Rousey told ESPN. “It’s like a painter looking at what he made and knowing it’s not done yet. You could get away with it. You could sell that painting and it would sell. But you’ll always know it was never as good as it could have been. I don’t want ‘Good enough’ to be my legacy.”

Rousey’s career was a tour de force that began with 12 straight wins, all via stoppage — nine coming by signature armbar and three by knockout. But then came Nov. 14, 2015 at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in front of a record live UFC crowd.

Amid speculation of overwhelming media and outside obligations due to her rising stardom, Rousey took on Holly Holm, a then-undefeated contender and former boxing champion. Holm stunned the world and knocked out Rousey in the second round.

The lasting highlight for Holm and lowlight for Rousey was a head kick that sent Rousey to the canvas unconscious.

Much is forgotten from that bout, however.

While the left head kick has been replayed over and over, it was an exclamation point. A left straight led to Rousey dropping to a knee before Holm’s kick brought the bout to an emphatic, yet academic conclusion. It was also a first-round left hand that rocked Rousey, according to her account, and changed everything going forward.

Since that fateful day, Rousey has been largely absent of a spotlight she once commanded like no cross-over star before in MMA history, while the title loss created a musical chairs of champions that currently finds Nunes sitting in the throne.

Attempting to defend the women’s bantamweight strap has been an omen of bad tidings since Rousey lost to Holm. Holm hasn’t won since she bested Rousey, having dropped the title to Tate ahead of a loss to Valentina Shevchenko. Tate lost her only defense to Nunes and then fell against Raquel Pennington before announcing her retirement.

So, Nunes will look to put a stop to this title merry-go-round, while Rousey aims to become the first woman to regain a UFC title in the company’s brief history of women’s championships.

Another forgotten aspect following Rousey’s last bout was her planned hiatus from fighting. While she hadn’t planned on taking off more than a year, she had scheduled a longer break from the octagon than before.

An appearance hosting “Saturday Night Live” and interviews on “Ellen” and “Conan” have dotted a year of rare appearances. As the fight draws near, neither Rousey nor Nunes will be at UFC fight week media engagements, with Rousey continuing to avoid interviews for the most part with the exceptions of the aforementioned TV appearances and the referenced ESPN story. Many in the MMA media have balked at Rousey’s avoidance of even standard media appearances with stories in regards to her treatment of the press having become abundant in the days leading up to the bout. Of course, a contrasting view could be that Rousey took on a media schedule unlike any fighter before her ahead of her UFC debut and continued to take on an overwhelming schedule leading up to her last bout and first loss. Thus, perhaps a change is warranted and a break has been earned.

“I was just trying to make too many people happy. But when I try and do favors and make everybody else happy, at the end of the day, they walk away happy and I’m the one who has to deal with the depression. All the pay-per-views in the world, all the money in the world, it means f---ing nothing to me because I lost,” Rousey told ESPN. “I will never put my body at risk for money and views ever again. What makes me happy is winning and being the best in the world and that’s it. F--- all the promotion and energy spent on anything that’s not me winning. And anyone who tries to tell me I owe them energy on frivolous s--- during camp out of ‘loyalty’ or ‘friendship’ deserves no loyalty from me and is no friend of mine.”

Nunes, though she’s done prefight interviews, has been noticeably absent of television promos leading up to the fight and many pundits have pointed out that she’s been largely removed from UFC 207 promotion at large despite being the champion.

“The UFC wants to make it easier for her. So she doesn’t feel like she’s not the champion anymore. They want to make her feel like that, that she’s not the second [to me]. They want to make me kind of the second to make her get stronger or something. I feel like they tried … to promote her so she can be strong and see that. Like Ronda, Ronda, Ronda, Ronda. But she knows she’s the challenger; I’m the champion. Nobody can change it. Nobody can make Ronda the champion. She’s not the champion anymore,” Nunes said Thursday at a UFC media luncheon in Los Angeles, three days after the champion missed an originally scheduled appearance due to a reported bout with a cold. “I will be a champion. UFC is gonna promote myself after this fight.”

While the absence of Rousey from the media and spotlight seems to be garnering the most notice, the fight itself seems to have taken a backseat.

Many believe the biggest question will be Rousey’s confidence, whether she fights as aggressively as she did previously or if she will come out wary of a very dangerous Nunes.

One prediction that seems warranted, however, is that the odds are against the bout extending past the first round.

Of Rousey and Nunes’ combined 30 professional fights, 22 have ended inside the first round and only Nunes has reached the distance, having gone to decision just twice in 17 bouts.

A striker first and foremost, Nunes has won nine times via knockout and is ferocious standing, particularly with her punches from a distance. The 28-year-old native of Brazil who trains at the well-regarded American Top Team in Florida, also has three submission wins. Her greatest criticism has always been her stamina, though, as she has noticeably waned in her offensive output when her fights have extended past the first round.

Many have speculated about Rousey’s endurance, as well, but she’s only gone past the first round twice, earning a third-round submission in her second bout with Tate and losing to Holm in the second round. Though Rousey seemed to tire against Holm, much can be said for Holm controlling the pace and delivering damage having much to do with that.

Regardless of the outcome against Holm, Rousey pressed forward throughout, obviously to her detriment this one time, but she has never been involved in a boring fight, to say the least.

Of Nunes’ four defeats, three have come to opponents Rousey has bested in less than a minute — Sarah D’Alelio, Alexis Davis and Cat Zingano. Consequently, Nunes’ other loss was in her professional debut against Ana Maria, not to be confused with Rousey’s mother, Dr. Ann Maria DeMars, via armbar.

In all, Nunes and Rousey have a whopping seven common opponents.

Rousey is a perfect 8-0 against them, having fought and defeated Tate twice, while Nunes also owns wins over Tate, Sara McMann, Julia Budd and Ediane Gomes.

While UFC 207 took a major hit to the pay-per-view main card with the loss of a heavyweight clash between former champions Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum, it is still considered a stellar card by many. In the co-main event, men’s bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (22-1) will defend his title against knockout artist Cody Garbrandt (10-0). In a potential No. 1 contender bout for the men’s 135-pound title, former champion TJ Dillashaw (13-3) will face heavy hitter John Lineker (29-7), while former Strikeforce welterweight champion Tarec Saffiedine (16-5) and Dong Hyun Kim (21-3-1) will collide and flyweights Louis Smolka (11-2) and Ray Borg (9-2) will kick off the pay-per-view portion of the night.

For all the fanfare and bad blood that surrounds the clash between Cruz and Garbrandt, Nunes’ defense against Rousey is the main event for a reason.

Just as Rousey has been one of the most seminal figures in mixed martial arts and now sports history, her return to combat has become one of the most anticipated.

And so the question looms until the cage door locks on Friday night: While the approach and build-up to Dec. 30 has been so vastly different than Rousey’s previous bouts, will her prior dominance that changed the world return or will Nunes set the sport upon a different path?

Said Rousey to ESPN: “This is a time for redemption and revenge.”

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Grant Gordon, grant.gordon@latimes.com

Twitter: @TCNGrantGordon