When Ronda Rousey stepped into the cage for the first time in almost a decade on Saturday night to challenge fellow mixed martial arts trailblazer Gina Carano, the fight was over before it ever really began. In a flash, Rousey had Carano locked in her signature armbar, leaving her opponent little choice but to tap. The fight lasted a mere 17 seconds.
“I didn’t really want to hurt her,” Rousey said after her win. “It was beautiful martial arts, that’s what I think that was. It was art.”
While the fight was jarringly anticlimactic, it headlined a much-hyped fight card that included former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who scored a lopsided first-round knockout to mark his return to MMA after a stint in boxing, and Nate Diaz, who was stopped at the end of the second round by Mike Perry.
The event marked MMA’s debut on Netflix. It was also the first MMA event promoted by Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), the company co-founded by Jake Paul. The brand’s primary focus is boxing, and it is best known for co-promoting the Amanda Serrano v Katie Taylor trilogy as well as for Paul’s fights against Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua.
Paul’s partner and advisor, Nakisa Bridarian, claimed the Rousey v Carano event was the “most expensive MMA card ever put together.” This is, in part, possible due to the backing of Netflix, which has recently shown an appetite for combat sports events. The world’s biggest subscription service has hosted five boxing events in the past year, including Canelo Álvarez v Terence Crawford, and even became the home of WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw.
However, Netflix’s interest in combat sports does not necessarily mean the company is prepared to invest heavily in MMA. Rousey admitted ahead of the fight that she hoped her bout with Carano would draw more than nine million viewers, which would break the MMA ratings record held by Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez at UFC on Fox in 2011. Whether it is able to achieve that figure and convince Netflix to invest in MMA more consistently remains to be seen.
There is also the issue of the event drawing sharp criticism for a lopsided main event featuring two fighters well past their prime, one of whom – Carano – had not competed in 17 years. Rousey, who is 39, even admitted after the bout that “she didn’t really want to hurt” Carano, who is 44, further emphasizing the absurdity of the mismatch. Rousey also made it clear that she has no intention of fighting again, effectively ending MVP’s hopes of building future cards around her. With no Rousey return and no clear narrative momentum to carry forward, the question remains: where does MVP’s MMA venture go from here?
In truth, this type of spectacle is typical of Paul’s MVP promotion, which cornered the market in influencer boxing with ridiculous spectacles like Paul’s bouts with Tyson and Joshua, the latter of which ended with Paul suffering a broken jaw in two places and placing doubts over the future of his boxing career.
MVP’s foray into mixed martial arts was a gamble, one which banked on the idea that the UFC had lost its creative spark and had left a void for others to fill. Since purchasing the UFC in 2016, Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor has approached the promotion as a scalable media property rather than a fighting organization. Instead of cultivating the can’t-miss spectacles that once defined the company’s biggest nights, it has been reduced to a vapid content mill delivering live fodder to prestigious broadcast partners.
Emanuel’s strategy reached its final form in August 2025, when the UFC signed a seven-year broadcast deal with Paramount reportedly worth $7.7bn. After spending decades building its business around blockbuster events capable of convincing fans to spend upwards of $80 for a single night of fights, the UFC’s revenue was now guaranteed upfront through rights fees rather than dependent on what a particular card could generate. This eliminated much of the UFC’s incentive to create cards that captured the imagination. Instead, it prioritized a consistent stream of mediocrity.
That shift created an unexpected opening in combat sports. MVP recognized that fans still craved events that felt monumental; cards built on personality, legacy, and imagination rather than mere brand maintenance. Rousey v Carano was a one-sided spectacle staged a decade too late, but it still captured the imagination of fans and gave them something the UFC had failed to provide for nearly 10 years.
To make matters worse, the UFC reportedly had a chance to host Rousey’s return to the cage but squandered it after the move to Paramount+ and pay-per-view profit was no longer an option to sweeten negotiations.
“[UFC] didn’t want to set a precedent of giving me the guaranteed money that I deserve because once I raise that tide it lifts all the boats,” Rousey told Jim Rome. “It’s in their best interest actually not to put on the best fights possible, but to spend as little as money as possible so that he can keep it.”
Despite the fact that Rousey was one of the biggest stars in UFC history, the organization was unwilling to make her an offer worth her while, which put an end to her hopes of returning to the Octagon. Once it became clear that the UFC was not willing to pay them what they were worth, Rousey and Carano took their fight to Paul and MVP, who were more than willing to make a deal.
Having exposed a void in the MMA market, one which treats events not as inventory but as occasions, it remains to be seen whether MVP can offer a more lighthearted alternative to the UFC’s tedious brand. In any case, it seems as though the UFC is taking notice.
Just as Ngannou was making his entrance on Saturday, the UFC announced that Conor McGregor – the former two-division champion – will return to the Octagon in July, marking his first fight in five years. It wasn’t the first time that the UFC has attempted to steal the spotlight from one of its competitors. When asked about it during the post-fight press conference, Rousey responded in typically blunt fashion.
“It’s kind of catty,” she said.
