Last Saturday, Most Valuable Promotions and Netflix held their inaugural mixed martial arts event on the streaming platform headlined by the return of former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
Rousey faced fellow women’s MMA trailblazer Gina Carano in the fight card’s main event. Rousey hadn’t fought in nearly a decade and it had been nearly 17 years since Carano stepped into the cage but the event ‘exceeded every expectation’ the fight promotion and Netflix had.
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“MVP’s first entry into MMA delivered on a massive global scale and exceeded every expectation we had for the launch of this new chapter of our business. Over 12.4 million viewers around the world tuned in live on Netflix, with viewership peaking at almost 17 million during Rousey vs. Carano, making it one of the most-watched MMA events of all time,” read a joint statement by MVP co-founders Nakisa Bidarian and Jake Paul.
The fight card featured three five-round bouts to top the card. Leading into the Rousey vs. Carano fight was a welterweight clash between Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships’ ‘King of Violence,’ Mike Perry, and the inventor of the UFC’s BMF belt, Nate Diaz.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou faced veteran Philipe Lins in the first of the three headlining bouts.
“In the United States alone, the triple-main card averaged 9.3 million viewers and peaked at 11.6 million viewers during the main event, making it the most watched MMA event ever in the US. The event also generated over 410 million impressions across MVP’s owned social channels, a live gate exceeding $2.2 million, and saw terrific commercial premises distribution across bars, restaurants, casinos, and hospitality venues nationwide. We’re incredibly proud of what was accomplished alongside our partners at Netflix and grateful to the athletes who helped make MVP MMA’s debut such a success,” read the press release.
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With the success of their debut MMA event, MVP plans to hold more in the future.
“We’ve received an overwhelming amount of interest from investors, strategic partners, and fighters who want to be involved with MVP and the future of MVP MMA,” the promotion said. “We are currently reviewing all strategic options to do something very meaningful within MMA on a go-forward basis with a distribution partner like Netflix that shares our vision to create lasting impact.”
