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It felt like Holly Holm head-kicked all that aura into oblivion<\/a> in Melbourne, Australia, six months after I was spellbound by the starlet. The public wanted its pound of flesh and Rousey delivered the opposite, shielding her face with a pillow as she made her way through LAX on her arrival home. She would return a year later, refusing all media, before suffering another first-round knockout at the hands of Amanda Nunes.<\/p>\n One of the true superstars of the fledgling sport had burned out in front of our very eyes. For fans and media, Rousey\u2019s inability to face the music left a bad taste<\/a>, and even though she would go on to have successful runs in the adjacent world of professional wrestling, the relationship with MMA was left in a presumed state of disrepair.<\/p>\n Ronda Rousey, left, and Gina Carano shake hands ahead of their Saturday fight on Netflix.<\/p>\n (MediaNews Group\/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n In the same way I couldn\u2019t have been convinced that I\u2019d seen Rousey\u2019s penultimate UFC win that night at the MGM, I could have never predicted the Ronda redemption arc<\/a> that has punctuated MVP\u2019s maiden voyage into the world of MMA. As soon as she walked on the stage for the first press conference to tease her comeback fight against fellow trailblazer, Gina Carano, Rousey had us eating out of the palm of her hand once again. You could be fooled into thinking that she was selling us a fight with Carano, but her real foe is clearly modern-day UFC<\/a>, the Hunter Campbell version, and the disrespect they showed her when negotiating a potential comeback.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n And it isn\u2019t just the \u201cdismissive” negotiation process<\/a> that\u2019s in her crosshairs \u2014 Rousey has pitted herself as the opponent of industry power. Critics are more than welcome to be uninterested in the contest against another fabled pioneer, but true fans of MMA cannot deny the importance of a true challenger to UFC, an alternative place for negotiation and the undeniable power of streaming giant Netflix\u2019s involvement with the sport.<\/p>\n As Rousey herself put it, UFC pissed off \u201cthe wrong b****,\u201d and now, backed by MVP and Netflix, she\u2019s impassioned to make them pay.<\/p>\n \u201cI love to be the designated b****,\u201d declared Rousey on Monday\u2019s episode of \u201dThe Ariel Helwani Show.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy to play that role, and if anything happened any other way, the entire future of the sport would be different. I feel like this is meant for things to be better for all fighters. I had to go through those things to get to this point and be where I am now. Now, I get it.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Things are trending in the right direction, but Rousey\u2019s renaissance is far from complete. The proof is in the pudding, and until promoter MVP and Netflix can see the numbers<\/a> their first event brings in, it\u2019s unknown if there are more in the pipeline. However, MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian has hinted at growing its MMA department.<\/p>\n![\"Inglewood,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/fad7c1f6-3d74-4392-bba0-b2c68025cdd7.jpeg\"\/)
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