INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Ronda Rousey can sense concern among the UFC ranks.
Rousey (13-2), a UFC Hall of Famer and former women’s bantamweight champion, took the UFC’s latest promotional move as a sign that it feels threatened by MVP MMA, the promotion where she successfully made her highly anticipated return to fighting. Rousey returned with a quick submission win over fellow women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano after 10 years away from the sport. She did so in the headliner of MVP’s inaugural MMA event, which took place Saturday night and streamed live on Netflix from the Intuit Dome.
Advertisement
During the event, right as former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou walked out to the cage for his bout against Philipe Lins, UFC CEO Dana White went live on Instagram to announce the entire UFC 329 card, which marks the return of Conor McGregor. Many saw the timing as an effort from the UFC to steal some shine away from MVP MMA’s show, and so did Rousey.
“I mean, it’s kind of catty,” Rousey told reporters at the MVP MMA post-fight press conference. “But it also shows that they see MVP MMA as a threat, that they would, you know, do it in that moment and spend, like, do it at that time. So I feel like it’s also a compliment because it elevates MVP MMA and makes – they’re declaring that they see us as a real rival. And I think that’s such a compelling story. And now they’re helping us tell it.”
Rousey, 39, who had a good working relationship with the UFC during her tenure there and has said numerous times she’s a personal friend of White’s, made much of the promotion leading up to her fight an attack on the UFC and its labor practices. She criticized the UFC’s restrictive contracts and low fighter pay while championing MVP’s fighter treatment.
Rousey: ‘I’m really f*cking good at promoting’
Rousey also took a personal stab at Hunter Campbell, chief business officer of the UFC, saying she was coming for his job while expressing interest in promoting for MVP MMA. Now, with her return all set and done, Rousey backtracked a bit on her interest to pursue promoter’s work.
Advertisement
“I think that the UFC needs competition. It’s the best thing for them, and I mean, I think MVP would be the best organization for that role,” Rousey explained. “I want to help, but … yeah, I think even if I don’t stick around, I really hope that MVP does (well) in MMA because I think it’s important. This event, it was incredible, and it breathed new life into the sport, and it just felt like the magic was back, you know? … l would love to help, but I think they could do it without me, just not as well, because one thing I realized about this was like, man, I’m really f*cking good at promoting. And I was actually having a good time with it. But I don’t know. I just know it from the role of a fighter. I don’t know it from the role of a promoter. So I guess we’ll just have to see.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ronda Rousey: UFC proved ‘they see MVP MMA as a threat’
