Ronda Rousey, on the cusp of her highly anticipated fight with Gina Carano, believes the core conflict in mixed martial arts is the battle for control over its future. In a recent interview with Complex, the former UFC champion articulated her view that the promotion is moving away from cultivating prominent fighters, instead prioritizing the UFC brand itself.
Rousey Expresses Disappointment in UFC’s Strategic Direction
Rousey suggested, “I think they don’t want that star power anymore. They want the brand to be the star. That’s why they stopped naming the fight cards and started giving them numbers. That’s why they started putting everybody in a uniform and trying to stamp out their individuality.”
She connected the UFC’s alleged shift to practices such as using numbered event cards, implementing standardized fight attire, and focusing on the “UFC” logo over individual athletes. Rousey cited the UFC’s handling of prominent fighters like Nate Diaz and Francis Ngannou as evidence of a changing power dynamic.
“They want people to show up to watch the brand. And that’s why when you have big stars like Nate Diaz and Francis Ngannou, who know their worth and demand more, they’re telling them to go kick rocks instead of paying them what they’re worth. They think they’re too big to fail and that there’s nowhere else for these fighters to go,” she stated.
As a counterpoint, Rousey highlighted the immense success of the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul event, a boxing spectacle promoted by MVP and streamed globally by Netflix. According to Rousey, this event garnered 108 million live views, serving as a testament to the power of character-driven matchups facilitated by technological platforms, rather than traditional pay-per-view models.
“People don’t tune in to watch a belt. They don’t tune in to watch a brand. They tune in to watch two fighters. That’s what I think the Tyson versus Paul fight proved. This was the most-viewed combat sports event of all time, 108 million live views. It’s not for a belt. It’s not for two people at the very top of the sport. It’s for two characters that resonate with people,” Rousey explained.
Rousey’s upcoming fight is part of MVP’s strategic expansion into mixed martial arts, in collaboration with Netflix. MVP, co-founded by Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, initially established itself in boxing before broadening its scope to include women’s boxing and now its inaugural MMA event. The May 16th show at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, featuring Rousey versus Carano, will be streamed live on Netflix.
Rousey suggested that this opportunity arose precisely because the UFC did not pursue the fight. Reports indicate that MVP’s entry into MMA “fell into its lap” after the UFC reportedly declined to arrange the Rousey-Carano bout, at a time when MVP was already instrumental in bridging combat sports and Netflix through events like Tyson-Paul.
Within the UFC, Rousey described a cultural shift that coincided with the organization’s move from pay-per-view to a streaming-focused model and the increased influence of UFC executive Hunter Campbell. She claimed that the promotion initially offered her a favorable deal for a final pay-per-view appearance, intended as a farewell featherweight title fight. However, she alleges that Campbell actively obstructed the fight against Carano.
“He actively tried to sabotage this fight. He tried to misrepresent Gina, saying that she wasn’t serious, that she wouldn’t make weight. He was trying to get me to fight other people. He was basically just trashing us and the marketability of our fight,” Rousey asserted.
Rousey expressed particular disappointment in how she claims UFC leadership discusses women’s divisions and even slap fighting. She recounted Campbell’s reportedly dismissive attitude towards the 145-pound division and a remark, relayed by her mother, suggesting that slap-fighting athletes would otherwise be “doing meth in a trailer park.”
“This is the new leadership in the company. This is the company that I helped build, the sport that I helped build for women, and I did not have much confidence in its future in his hands. After getting that kind of rude awakening to the new state of the company, I realized that I had to take this into my own hands and go another route. Luckily, MVP and Netflix were willing to take a bet on us,” Rousey concluded.
The upcoming Rousey-Carano fight is thus positioned not just as a significant bout for their legacies, but as a practical demonstration of Rousey’s theory: that in 2026, personality-driven events on streaming platforms possess the capacity to challenge the UFC’s dominance in the narrative of major fights.