MMA icon Ronda Rousey, a former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, is set to make her highly anticipated return to the octagon on May 16. She will face fellow women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. Notably, this monumental clash is not promoted by the UFC or airing on Paramount, but rather by Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) and will be broadcast exclusively on Netflix.
Rousey, now 39, last competed in December 2016, suffering a TKO defeat to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. Carano, 43, has been absent from professional fighting even longer, with her last bout occurring in August 2009, where she lost to Cris Cyborg for the inaugural Strikeforce Women’s Featherweight Championship. Despite these extensive layoffs – over a decade for Rousey and 17 years for Carano – Rousey confidently declares this matchup as the “biggest women’s fight of all time.”
Speaking on Most Valuable Promotion’s YouTube channel, Rousey remarked, “Everyone’s treating it like it’s such a big deal, but we’ve been doing this behind the scenes for like over a year. It seems so obvious that this was the biggest women’s fight of all time, maybe even the biggest MMA fight of all time.” She added, “This is going to be something great and something that’s never been done before in women’s combat sports.”
Rousey further elaborated on the fight’s significance, stating, “It’s a dream fight and a super fight and everything, but I feel like the story and everything behind it is not just this fight, but a lot of it is MVP versus UFC.” She then emphasized her commitment to this rivalry: “And that’s where I’m going to f*cking go real hard in the trenches.”
While candidly admitting that the narrative extends beyond the fighters to a clash of promotional titans, Rousey surprisingly suggested that MVP and Netflix entering the combat sports arena ultimately benefits the UFC.
With a humorous tone, Rousey quipped, “We’re helping them because they’re suffering from a lack of competition. And they can’t just make a class action lawsuit every couple of years as the cost of doing business. And so, I’m really trying to help Dana [White] out.”
She concluded with a teasing remark about her relationship with UFC President Dana White: “If anyone has been groomed to be his apprentice, it’s been me. And I think I’d be the most favorite adversary he’s ever had.”
