The combat sports world was left stunned when Ronda Rousey announced her return to the cage on May 16—not under the UFC banner, but as the centrepiece of Most Valuable Promotions’ (MVP) inaugural MMA event. At a high-octane press conference in Los Angeles, the former bantamweight queen didn’t just promote her fight with Gina Carano; she unleashed a scathing critique of the organisation that made her a household name.
Rousey, who will headline the Netflix-aired event at the Intuit Dome, argued that the UFC has shifted from being the premier destination for athletes to “one of the worst places to go” for a fair wage. She pointed to a growing exodus of talent, including her co-main event partner Francis Ngannou, as evidence of a systemic failure in how fighters are treated.
“Poverty-Level Fighting” in a Multi-Billion Dollar Company
Rousey’s most pointed comments focused on the disparity between the UFC’s recent $7.7 billion valuation and the financial struggles of its roster. She didn’t hold back, referencing the modern trend of fighters seeking alternative income streams to survive.
“It’s why so many of their top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere,” Rousey stated. “It’s why their champions like Valentina [Shevchenko] are selling pictures on OnlyFans. These people, a lot of them at the ground level, they can’t support their families. They’re living poverty-level fighting full-time.”
Rousey attributed this “bleeding of talent” to short-term corporate greed, claiming that the promotion is now focused solely on shareholders and quarterly reports rather than being “stewards of the future of the sport.”
The “Dana White” Defence
Despite her harsh words for the promotion’s current trajectory, Rousey was careful to distinguish between the company and its CEO, Dana White. Describing White as “loyal to a fault,” she suggested that the UFC’s acquisition by WME-IMG and the subsequent TKO Group Holdings merger has stripped White of his original influence.
“Dana is legally beholden to the shareholders,” Rousey explained. “Unfortunately, now that they’ve taken the reins of the company away from him, it’s barely recognisable. They need to be saved from themselves and luckily I’m here to be their hero.”
Challenging the Monolith: The Netflix Factor
Originally, Rousey intended to bring the Carano “super-fight” to the UFC. However, when the promotion shifted toward a streaming model with Paramount, Rousey realised the most lucrative path—for both her and Carano—was to go independent. Joining forces with Jake Paul’s MVP and Netflix has transformed the bout from a personal comeback into a direct challenge to the UFC’s dominance.
“Now it’s become about changing the entire landscape of the sport and challenging the monolith that the UFC has become,” Rousey said. “When it wasn’t going to work out with the UFC, I told [Gina] we can do this on our own, we don’t need them… that’s what led us to us sitting here about to put on the most-viewed MMA fight of all time.”
With Ngannou vs. Phillipe Lins serving as the co-main event, the May 16 card represents a significant shift in the MMA power dynamic, proving that the sport’s biggest stars no longer believe they need the Octagon to make history.
