Dana White to meet with Ronda Rousey next week, but won't ask her about fighting

After a grueling bout or a devastating loss, Dana White usually gives a fighter some space. The UFC president said he doesn't contact someone like that -- such as Robbie Lawler after his win at UFC 189 -- for around a month.

White won't have that luxury with Ronda Rousey following her history-changing UFC 193 knockout loss to Holly Holm. White said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast this week that he and Rousey will meet next week face to face. He did not specify what the meeting will be about, but made it seem like it was something scheduled before she lost her women's bantamweight title to Holm.

If MMA comes up in their conversation, White said he won't be the one doing it.

"If she does, that's cool," he said. "If she wants to talk, we can talk. But I won't talk to her about it. I'll give her a month."

When that month is up, though, White expects Rousey to be raring to go. He thinks she'll undoubtedly want a rematch with Holm soon, much like Anderson Silva did when he was knocked out by Chris Weidman in 2013.

"She's the mentally strongest f*cking athlete I've ever met in my life," White said. "When she gets over this loss, she's going to be a savage, man. She was a maniac and a hard-worker when she was the best in the world. What's she going to be like now that she lost?"

Rogan asked White about when the rematch might happen, but he didn't know.

"We've gotta see where Ronda is at and we'll figure it out," White said. "Obviously, UFC 200 would be awesome."

White's excitement for that potential rematch, which Holm already expects, was nearly tangible.

"The thing that makes this fight great again is Holly Holm," he said. "Now everybody knows how talented Holly Holm is and that Holly Holm is legit and Holly Holm is a workhorse, too. Both these two are going to take the next few months, go back in, start working on sh-t, and they're going to clash again. And this second fight will be f*cking awesome."

The UFC boss didn't go into great detail about why he thought Rousey lost, preferring to praise Holm. But he did mention all the obligations Rousey has -- from media to sponsors and beyond. White said she went the extra mile as champion. More than anyone else before her.

"Ronda Rousey did it better than anybody has ever done it," he said. "The amount of work, the amount of time she put in, how hard she trained, the things she would do. She didn't become a huge superstar for no reason. She worked at it."

White said Carla Esparza, the first UFC women's strawweight champion, was an example of someone who was uncomfortable with all the outside things needed when you hold the title. White said Esparza "started to freak out" when she won the belt and then was asked to do media and defend it again a few months later.

"It sucks a lot of energy out of you, man," White said. "Doing that stuff is very time consuming. You always have to be on. There's tons of preparation that goes into it. They travel that's needed to do it. It's a heavy workload when you become the champion."

White also addressed people on social media Saturday that were saying he would be upset after Holm beat Rousey. He said that is not the case at all and he was the one pushing for Holm to be the next title contender, because he felt like he was a tough matchup for Rousey.

"You get all the conspiracy weirdos that start talking about, all anybody wants to say is, 'Oh, I want to see Dana White's face after Holly Holm beat her,'" White said. "Two women are going in there. Ronda and Holly are going in there. Somebody is gonna win and somebody is gonna lose. Anybody who's stupid enough to think that I think somebody could win forever or somebody else couldn't win is ridiculous."

The prevailing thought for White leaving Melbourne, though, was about Holm, her game plan and her execution. She pulled off what most people thought she could not.

"Holly Holm fought the perfect fight last night," White said. "As you sit and just think about it through your head, she fought the perfect fight."