Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey continues to go scorched earth on the promotion that helped build her brand.
Ahead of her comeback fight against Gina Carano on May 16, which will be promoted by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, Rousey continued to take aim at the UFC.
“I mean I think nobody is more qualified than me,” Rousey told TMZ about her potentially becoming involved in the MVP brand should their first MMA card be successful. “I’m definitely more qualified than Hunter f*cking Campbell. I think that MVP would be an incredible partner and that Nakisa [Bidarian] and Jake Paul really believe in making sure the fighters are compensated fairly.”
Hunter Campbell of course, is the UFC’s Chief Business Officer who was hired to the promotion in 2016 after previously completely an internship.
“The sport is at a crossroads where it’s kind of like I came upon women’s MMA and I’m like wait a minute, there’s a huge opportunity here. I’m seeing it right now with MVP and Netflix and MMA. [If] this event is a huge success, there’s a huge opportunity to take over the market share in MMA and show everybody what they’ve been missing.”
Rousey has been vocal of the UFC while promoting her upcoming fight, backing fighters and not the brand.
“I think what Jake Paul and Mike Tyson proved is that showcase fights are the future of the sport,” Rousey explained. “People don’t tune in to see a belt. They don’t tune in to see a brand. They tune in to see characters that they know and love. It’s just like Pirates of the Caribbean. I’m not tuning in because I like the brand Pirates of the Caribbean or Disney. I don’t really care who gets Davey Jones’ heart at the end. I’m tuning in to see Jack Sparrow.
“The UFC, I think, has forgot that the fighters are the stars and that the characters are what people tune into see. They forgot when they started giving fight cards numbers instead of names and when they started putting everybody in the same exact uniform. I feel like there’s a huge opportunity to show what people miss in MMA and creating premier fights that feature characters that people love. I think this is just the beginning, if it is the huge success that I expect it to be. Hopefully there’s a partnership there in the future with me and MVP.”
