Ronda Rousey’s unexpected MMA tease has sparked plenty of speculation regarding a potential UFC return. If it happens, her fellow UFC legend Demetrious Johnson believes the former champ would thrive.

A UFC Hall of Famer and former bantamweight champion, Rousey, 38, posted new training footage this past week showing her hitting pads in the gym, adorned with the revelation that she was “finding my love” for the sport again. Rousey famously renounced MMA following back-to-back knockout losses in 2015-16 and has often spoken bitterly of her time in the sport in the years since. In the weeks before the video was posted, rumblings began picking up of a potential Rousey return for the UFC’s big White House card expected for July 2026, and though Rousey has shut down the possibility of fighting on that event in recent interviews, that doesn’t mean she couldn’t still find success if she does decide to compete again.

Speaking on Monday’s edition of Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show,” former UFC flyweight champion Johnson explained why he doesn’t think a “Rowdy” return would be the worst idea.

“If Ronda comes back, I think she’ll be fine,” Johnson said. “I look at the women’s bantamweight division — I don’t feel like this generation has really moved past her skill set. The only hole she had in her game was going against someone who was super athletic, like Amanda Nunes, and somebody who’s not going to allow her to use her judo, right?

“Some of the things about her, I followed her amazing career, and reading things like, I remember she said she got kicked in the face and her jaw was misplaced for like two or three weeks, and she couldn’t eat an apple. That’s a normal thing for me when I would train. I get rocked in the gym, oh s***, I can’t eat an apple. It is what it is. So yeah, I think she could come back. She’d make a lot of money, and I think throw her ass on the White House card. Give her like $5 million and set her off in the sunset again.”

Rousey retired from MMA in 2017 shortly after her last fight, a brutal 48-second loss to Nunes at UFC 207. Afterward, she transitioned to the world of professional wrestling, where she worked with WWE and held virtually every women’s title in the company. She has currently been focusing on her writing career and has released two memoirs, as well as a graphic novel.

Coincidentally, the same night Rousey last stepped into the Octagon, the men’s bantamweight title was also on the line as then-champion Dominick Cruz suffered a tough decision loss to Cody Garbrandt. Johnson’s lone bantamweight championship bout came against Cruz in a 2011 unanimous decision loss, which served as the catalyst for his move down to flyweight, where he crafted his Hall of Fame legacy.

Cruz retired earlier this year after his history of injuries finally caught up to him once and for all. Regardless, he remains arguably the greatest bantamweight of all time in most debates about the 135-pound division, though current UFC champ Merab Dvalishvili has started to make a strong case.

Having recently trained with Dvalishvili ahead of Saturday’s upcoming title defense at UFC 320, Johnson was impressed and able to gauge the differences between the prime versions of Cruz and “The Machine.”

So who does the flyweight G.O.A.T. see as the best to ever fight at 135 pounds?

“That’s a hard one,” Johnson said. “Merab is so good about what he does. I think with Dom, Dom is a very good trickster — not trickster, excuse me. He has a very high IQ. Not saying Merab doesn’t. Dom is big. I just don’t know if Merab could take him down, [but] I didn’t think Merab was going to outwrestle Henry Cejudo and carry him across the cage like that.

“Just for how many champions Merab has beaten, I’m going to have to go Merab. Not saying Dom can’t beat him, but I think Merab is just a different animal. He’s able to implement the same style against everybody. You take out Jose Aldo, you put in Sean O’Malley — it’s the same Merab. If you take out Sean O’Malley, you put in Henry Cejudo — same Merab. He has a certain style that he implements against everybody. … Merab gets to dictate where the fight takes place.”

In UFC 320’s co-main event this weekend, Dvalishvili makes his latest title defense against top contender Cory Sandhagen. Thanks to his incredible momentum and dominance, the streaking Dvalishvili is a comfortable betting favorite on BetMGM, however Johnson doesn’t view him as unbeatable.

The grappling sessions Johnson worked on with Dvalishvili were admittedly eye-opening, as he noticed the champion catch him with a submission similar to Dvalishvili’s Sean O’Malley rematch this past June. Ultimately, Johnson expects Dvalishvili’s approach to largely dictate how his next challenge unfolds.

“I think anybody can be beat,” Johnson said. “Here’s the thing. Cory has a unique skill set, where he makes it hard for people to hold him down. If you go back and look at the Umar Nurmagomedov fight, Cory was doing a good job of moving, giving Umar a hard time, but each time it came to the grappling exchange, Umar was doing a good job of taking his post away, and Cory was doing a good job not rolling to his legs.

“When you look at Merab, Merab is very good about hovering in certain positions, not losing position. I saw Merab posted, saying that he’s going to spend the fight on his feet. He might. The fight does start on the feet, but I think Merab’s strong suit is taking people into a bad position, waiting for them to make a mistake, and capitalizing on it.”