Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey returns to the cage on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. against fellow women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano. Instead of the bout taking place in the UFC on Paramount, it’s being put on by Most Valuable Promotions and will air on Netflix.
Rousey, 39, last fought in December 2016, losing to Amanda Nunes via TKO at UFC 207. Carano, 43, hasn’t fought since August 2009 when she lost to Cris Cyborg by TKO for the inaugural Strikeforce Women’s Featherweight Championship. Despite it being a decade since Rousey fought, and 17 years since Carano stepped foot in the cage, Rousey believes the matchup is the ‘biggest women’s fight of all time.”
“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,” Rousey said on Most Valuable Promotion’s YouTube channel. “This is going to be something great and something that’s never been done before in women’s combat sports.”
“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,” Rousey said. “And that’s where I’m going to f*cking go real hard in the trenches.”
While acknowledging that part of the storyline deals with promotional rivals, Rousey believes Most Valuable Promotions and Netflix putting on events only helps the UFC.
“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,” Rousey joked.
“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.”
