Ronda Rousey says her upcoming fight with Gina Carano nearly happened inside the UFC before the two fighters decided to move forward with a different promotion.
The former UFC champion and WWE star is scheduled to face Carano in May in a bout that will headline the first MMA event promoted by Most Valuable Promotions. The fight is expected to stream on Netflix and marks the return of two pioneers of women’s MMA, with Rousey last competing in 2016 and Carano having not fought since 2009.
During the press conference announcing the fight, Rousey revealed the matchup was initially planned to take place under the UFC banner before plans eventually changed. She said the goal evolved into something bigger than simply staging the fight.
“It’s become about changing the entire landscape of the sport and challenging the monolith that the UFC has become. I’m so grateful that Gina trusted me when it wasn’t going to work out with the UFC. I told her, ‘We can do this on our own. We don’t need them. We don’t need anyone.’ And she said, ‘I’m going to follow your lead. I’m going to trust you.’ And that’s what led us to MVP, and to Netflix, and to us sitting here to put on the most viewed MMA fight of all time.”
Carano explained that the idea for the fight was first discussed in December 2024 while Rousey was three months pregnant. Rousey added that she still approached UFC president Dana White out of respect to see if the promotion would be interested in hosting the bout.
“Originally we were going to do New Year’s, and it was going to be the last fight under the pay-per-view model, and he offered me the best pay-per-view structure ever and I was so grateful. But then Gina said she needed more time to get into the best shape possible and that she wanted me to fight the best version of herself. I think that was fate. It was meant to be.”
Rousey also suggested that once the UFC began moving away from the traditional pay-per-view model and toward streaming through Paramount+, it made more sense for the fighters to stage the event themselves with the help of MVP.
Do you think Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano would have been bigger if it happened in the UFC, or is the independent MVP event the right move?
