{"id":677423,"date":"2026-05-17T21:51:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/677423\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T21:51:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T21:51:33","slug":"ronda-rousey-responds-to-ufc-announcing-conor-mcgregors-return-during-mvp-mma-1-they-see-us-as-a-real-rival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/677423\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey responds to UFC announcing Conor McGregor&#8217;s return during MVP MMA 1: &#8220;They see us as a real rival&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ronda Rousey believes UFC\u2019s decision to reveal Conor McGregor\u2019s return fight during Francis Ngannou\u2019s walkout speaks volumes about how the promotion feels about MVP MMA.<\/p>\n<p>Most Valuable Promotions held its first MMA event this past Saturday inside the Intuit Dome. Rousey headlined the card against Gina Carano in a comeback bout for both women\u2019s MMA pioneers. \u201cRowdy\u201d took Carano down quickly and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ronda-rousey\/ronda-rousey-lauds-gina-carano-following-17-second-submission-win-shes-my-f-hero\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">secured a 17-second armbar finish<\/a>. It\u2019s Rousey\u2019s first pro MMA win since 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Also featured on the card was former UFC heavyweight titleholder Ngannou taking on Philipe Lins. \u201cThe Predator\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/francis-ngannou\/mvp-mma-results-francis-ngannou-kos-philipe-lins-video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">knocked Lins out in the first round<\/a>, but something interesting happened during his walkout outside of the MVP MMA 1 broadcast. As Ngannou was making his way down to the cage, UFC dropped its big UFC 329 announcement unveiling that McGregor will be competing against Max Holloway on July 11.<\/p>\n<p>Rousey was asked about the timing of the announcement during the MVP MMA 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/results?search_query=mvp+mma+1+post+fight+press+conference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">post-fight presser<\/a>. \u201cRowdy\u201d was a bit amused, but she also views it as a sign that UFC is taking MVP MMA seriously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, it\u2019s kind of catty, but it also shows that they see MVP MMA as a threat that they do it at that time,\u201d Rousey said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s also a compliment because it elevates MVP MMA and they\u2019re declaring that they see us as a real rival. I think that\u2019s such a compelling story, and they\u2019re helping us tell it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MVP and Rousey appear to be working together for the long haul regardless of whether or not \u201cRowdy\u201d will ever return to the cage again. What Rousey would be doing behind the scenes remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think UFC views MVP MMA as real competition, or was the timing of the Conor McGregor return announcement just done just to pester Jake Paul and perhaps even Francis Ngannou? Sound off in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey believes UFC\u2019s decision to reveal Conor McGregor\u2019s return fight during Francis Ngannou\u2019s walkout speaks volumes about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-677423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}