At times, it seems like Ronda Rousey is more focused on waging war against anyone other than Gina Carano.
While Rousey will square off against Carano in the main event of a Most Valuable Promotions card on Netflix on May 16, “Rowdy” took aim at fellow judoka Kayla Harrison during a press conference on Wednesday. During a recent interview on the ”Death Row MMA” podcast, Harrison, the current UFC bantamweight queen, expressed disappointment that Rousey vs Carano has been touted by some as the biggest fight in women’s MMA history. Harrison also called Rousey “irrelevant.” Harrison was supposed to face Amanda Nunes at UFC 324 before she had to withdraw from the event to undergo neck surgery.
Rousey was in prime form as she fired back at Harrison during Wednesday’s promotional event.
“If she thinks that her fight is the biggest women’s fight of all-time, why is she getting paid less now than I was 10 years ago?” Rousey said. “So riddle me this, bitch, are you overvalued or are you overpaid? What really pisses me off more than anything else is how small she thinks. This is not just the biggest women’s fight of all time; this is the biggest MMA fight of all time. It’s going to get the most views on the biggest platform on the card with the biggest stars, and it was assembled by and will be headlined by two women who dared to dream big.
“This dream is going to bring more opportunities and greater revenue share to fighters than they’ve ever had before because this fight is bigger than just me and Gina. It’s bigger than anybody on this stage. It represents an unstoppable force of change in this industry, spearheaded by the fighters themselves. You bet your f—ing ass this is the biggest MMA fight of all time. Bar none.”
Raising the Ceiling
Speaking of opportunities, Rousey also provided some insight into the minimum pay structure for all fighters on the card. She claims that everyone on the card, from the opening bout to the main event, will have a minimum purse that exceeds what is typically offered by the UFC for entry-level deals.
I think it’s really important that we raise the ceiling but we also raise the floor. One thing htat I’m really proud of in this fight is the absolute minimum that anybody will walk away with — even if they don’t have a big, long record and even if they lose — is $40,000. If you fight three times in a year, that is much more than a living wage and that is something that the UFC cannot say.
“..I hope that after this event we can keep raising that ceiling higher and higher and higher until it is on par with the highest level boxers because that is really where the holy grail I think for us is, and this is just the beginning.”
