UFC legend fears that Ronda Rousey is not mentally ready for Amanda Nunes clash

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hall of famer Chuck Liddell fears for former bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and claimed that while she is a brilliant fighter, he is not sure if she has recovered mentally from her loss to American Holly Holm.

The Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) superstar suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Holm at UFC 196 via a vicious head kick, which was her first loss as a professional fighter. Rousey admitted that she was mentally scarred by the loss and vanished from the public eye for more than a year before appearing last month.

"I wouldn't take the chance on her being recovered from all the mental stuff. Personally, as a coach I'd like to have seen her come back, it's harder at her stature to take a lower-level fight, but I would have liked to see her come back in a smaller fight. I would have tried to give her a warm up fight. Just to get her mentally back in the game. Because Amanda Nunes is a tough, tough opponent", Liddell said as quoted by News Australia.

What worried Liddell was that Rousey did not try to immediately reclaim her belt from Holm and took her loss as a sign to retreat. Rousey, he said, would be a little nervous heading into what is arguably one of the most important fights of her career.

"The thing that worries me, is a guy like Aldo gets knocked out and he wanted to fight that day. He wanted another shot at it that day. That's a guy that's got it together up here- I made a mistake, I know what I did wrong, I want to win now. She, she folded, I don't know what happened to her. Personally with all the stuff afterwards and the way she handled it and the way things went- I'd be nervous," Liddell added.

Rousey will face current bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes for a chance to reclaim her belt at the UFC 207 event at Las Vegas on 30 December.