Ronda Rousey has made her comeback tour extra direct to the UFC’s fashionable enterprise mannequin, utilizing the current press occasion for her battle in opposition to Gina Carano to reinvigorate the promotion over pay, matchmaking and new streaming period priorities.
The previous UFC bantamweight champion will return to MMA beneath the banner of Jake Paul’s Most Useful Promotions, and her long-discussed matchup with Gina Carano is scheduled to headline Netflix’s first reside MMA card on Could sixteenth on the Intuit Dome in California, and is being touted as a traditional showdown between two of girls’s MMA’s unique stars.
Ronda Rousey blows $7.7 billion with UFC, says fighters do not even make a residing wage
Rousey mentioned she initially approached Dana White personally in an try to convey Carano to the UFC, however negotiations fell aside when the promotion’s new broadcast contract and inside monetary construction grew to become a difficulty.
In explaining why this battle wasn’t featured on a UFC card, Rousey attributed your entire breakdown to the promotion’s transfer from pay-per-view to an all-in streaming partnership with Paramount value about $7.7 billion. This eliminates the standard PPV upside for stars and locations extra emphasis on mounted prices and shareholder returns.
“Since (the UFC) has moved to a streaming mannequin, it is not about placing on the very best fights. Dana has a authorized obligation to his shareholders and to maximizing shareholder worth. Sadly, now that they’ve taken the reins of the corporate away from (Dana White), it is nearly unrecognizable.”
This criticism follows feedback Rousey had already made in an interview, the place she mentioned the UFC “did not need to set a precedent” by giving her and Carano the assured cash they felt they deserved. That is as a result of it may probably “raise the tide” for the remainder of the roster in the course of his contract with Paramount.
Rousey mentioned the promotion’s new incentives favor “cost-effective” battle playing cards over the most important doable matchups, because the assure of a blockbuster reduces the margin anticipated by company possession and public shareholders.
“The UFC is likely one of the worst locations to be. A number of prime athletes go away to hunt pay elsewhere. That is why champions like Valentina (Shevchenko) are promoting photos of their boobs on OnlyFans.”
Her jab at Valentina Shevchenko has affected the reside debate over fighters’ pay and secondary earnings sources, with a number of UFC names turning to subscription platforms and sponsorship-heavy social media in recent times to complement the earnings they earn contained in the cage.
Rousey’s argument is that in an period of long-term media funding, the corporate ought to relieve monetary stress on athletes on the backside and heart of the cardboard, quite than pushing them into content-side jobs.
“This firm simply bought $7.7 billion. There isn’t any cause they cannot a minimum of pay their gamers a residing wage.”
The 7.7 billion determine she cited is in line with reviews in regards to the dimension of the UFC’s new broadcast contract, a key speaking level amongst critics who say fighters’ incomes haven’t stored up with the promotion’s media and sponsor revenues. Former featherweight champion Cris Cyborg lately backed up Rousey’s evaluation, saying her refusal to regulate her income mannequin after the UFC moved to ESPN and entered the Paramount streaming period was an enormous think about her transfer to Bellator, the place she signed what was mentioned to be the biggest contract in girls’s MMA on the time.
Rousey additionally tied her wage criticism to the UFC’s current matchmaking, specializing in the extremely touted 2026 White Home card. The occasion, constructed round political spectacle and company milestones, has already confronted backlash from followers over a skinny lineup and the absence of a number of the promotion’s greatest names.
Jon Jones has been publicly lobbying for a spot on the cardboard after declining a suggestion for a heavyweight title battle with Tom Aspinall, whereas Dana White is pushing again, citing belief points after Jones turned down an enormous provide for the battle. In the meantime, Conor McGregor is coaching for an look in Washington, in accordance with John Kavanagh, however no official battle has been introduced, including to the uncertainty surrounding the promotion’s supposed supercard.
As heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall reacts calmly to an look on Cyrille Gane’s White Home present and Jones watches from the skin, the narrative round UFC matchmaking has shifted from dominance to confusion, and Francis Ngannou’s exit from boxing and the PFL continues to overshadow the current historical past of the UFC division. In that context, Rousey’s feedback struck multiple nerve. She assaults fighter pay, but in addition means that Paramount-era monetary logic distorts how UFC playing cards are put collectively, who will get pushed, and the way typically followers truly see the most important fights out there.
“I assure he is not glad about it both.”
Rousey, who’s getting ready to face Carano in the primary occasion on Netflix, backed by an upstart rival promotion, is positioning herself as a cautionary story and a cautionary story, insisting that if the $7.7 billion firm can not pay the worth in one of many greatest bouts in girls’s combined martial arts historical past, the message to the remainder of the roster can’t be ignored.
