{"id":527935,"date":"2026-03-11T00:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T00:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527935\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T00:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T00:30:08","slug":"ronda-rousey-just-lit-the-match-on-mmas-season-of-ufc-discontent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527935\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey just lit the match on MMA’s season of UFC discontent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ronda Rousey was asked to describe Dana White in one word Tuesday, and \u2014 as a most giving fighter \u2014 she offered four. \u201cLoyal to a fault,\u201d she said from Los Angeles during MVP\u2019s first MMA press conference<\/a>, setting the table for her May 16 bout against Gina Carano.<\/p>\n

Dogs are described that way.<\/p>\n

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So are hopeless romantics, cult members and Tim Duncan for all those years on the Spurs. But Dana White, her longtime promoter who helped get her to the top of the MMA world?<\/p>\n

What she meant was Dana has been loyal to the UFC, even if today\u2019s version of the UFC \u2014 the one helmed by TKO, the powerhouse that owns the UFC, WWE and Zuffa Boxing hydra \u2014 has lost the narrative<\/a>. Dana is caught in a particularly soulless movement<\/a>, she said in so many words, that is setting out to appease shareholders at the cost of doing the kind of business that got them where they are.<\/p>\n

If ’tis the season to air grievances against those sacred three letters, we\u2019re in the heart of it. We have Tom Aspinall hiring White\u2019s nemesis, Eddie Hearn, for representation<\/a>, in what was a counterstrike against Zuffa Boxing for poaching Connor Benn. We have Aspinall siding with the bane of his existence, Jon Jones<\/a>, for the recent treatment he received from the UFC.<\/p>\n

Because, oh yeah, to kick off the week Jones asked for his outright release<\/a> from the promotion after some discrepancies (read: lies) surfaced as to why he wasn\u2019t on the White House card. In Dana\u2019s version, Jones was never in play for what\u2019s been dubbed UFC Freedom 250. In Jones\u2019 version, they negotiated plenty, yet what they came up with was a lowball offer. The arthritic hips? Everyone could agree on those, though Jones said he was dealing with it through stem cell procedures in preparation for a fight on the South Lawn. Dana just said that Jones is done.<\/p>\n

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The #FreeJonJones campaign became part of a brooding subtext Tuesday as a panel of Rousey, Carano, Francis Ngannou and Philipe Lins set forth on a new venture, aimed to at least make the UFC feel its presence in the MMA space. There were plenty of shots fired, and they were mostly coming from Rousey herself. Alluding to Dana being a victim to the UFC\u2019s new way of thinking, she spoke freely for him when asked if he got mad at her after seeing her comments about the \u2026 um \u2026 White House card being a little too milquetoast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows the White House card sucks,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cHe knows they were pushing this for over a year and it fell extremely short of expectations. He was so upset about it, he was talking about a fight falling out of it the day before. I can guarantee you he\u2019s not happy with it either, and he\u2019s the one who taught me through example to speak my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronda was definitely out there speaking her mind on that MVP dais. She mentioned she has so much \u201clove and respect\u201d for Dana, which was why she alerted him first when she struck the deal with MVP and Netflix. She said the UFC tried to get her and Carano on the promotion’s last ever pay-per-view at UFC 323, but Carano wasn\u2019t quite ready. After that, negotiations cooled. Carano, who smiled nervously as Rousey went off, looked happy that somebody else was doing the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n

She mostly sat back and let Ronda work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biggest fight in MMA right now,\u201d Rousey went on. \u201cThere are no two people in the sport with more international name recognition except for me and Gina \u2026 except for Conor [McGregor], but no one\u2019s going to sanction that. This isn\u2019t a charity card. This isn\u2019t a throwback, nostalgia card. This is the biggest fight in the sport right now, and it needed to happen now. This is fate between us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Echoing the sentiment in the air that UFC athletes are underpaid, she got a little heated, especially when she uttered the figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis company just did $7.7 billion,\u201d she said, \u201cthere\u2019s no reason they can\u2019t afford to pay their athletes at least a living wage.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was like she\u2019d been pulled back for a decade on a bowstring and finally let go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s why champions like Valentina [Shevchenko] are selling pictures of their t****** on OnlyFans,\u201d she said, not afraid to issue a few strays to make her larger points.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce [UFC] moved into the streaming model, it’s just not about putting on the best fights possible anymore,\u201d she said. \u201cDana is legally beholden to the shareholders and to maximize shareholder value. Unfortunately, now that they\u2019ve taken the reins of the company away from [Dana], it\u2019s barely recognizable now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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‘Tis the season, alright. Ngannou, who was announced on the card Monday after making tens of millions in the boxing ring and with the PFL, joined in the chant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not employees; we are independent contractors,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we should be able to get what we deserve \u2014 and if we don\u2019t get [it], we will be able to have a right to walk away and go look at other options.\u201d<\/p>\n

He, too, mentioned the word \u201clowball.\u201d It\u2019s the hottest word in the UFC lexicon currently. Of all the highballs, eight balls and lowballs, he knows how bad Jones hates settling for the last option. He expressed on social media that Jones deserved the $30 million payday<\/a> \u201cafter everything you\u2019ve done for the sport,\u201d saying the UFC \u201cshould be rolling out the RED CARPET for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m happy I\u2019m out of that,\u201d Francis said at the MVP podium, where he himself represented the kind of freedom he was speaking on.<\/p>\n

And when MVP co-founder Jake Paul got on the mic, he called the MMA landscape the \u201cWild West.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a league he\u2019s starting, he told us, it\u2019s a movement to pay fighters what they are worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we have massive opportunity to disrupt the whole space, and to put fighters first, to get them to the pay they deserve, to the platform they deserve,\u201d Paul said. \u201cBecause I believe the UFC is dying and MVP is here to take over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is the UFC dying? That might be a stretch, but the UFC is under fire right now for the way it conducts business.<\/p>\n

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Jon Jones. Tom Aspinall. Ronda Rousey. These are names who\u2019ve been synonymous with the UFC for a long time, and each one of them could\u2019ve been described as loyal.<\/p>\n

Only not to a fault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey was asked to describe Dana White in one word Tuesday, and \u2014 as a most giving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,10359,641,25249,146728,1866,638,1867,82,19545,1972,640,1971],"class_list":["post-527935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dana-white","tag-fighting","tag-francis-ngannou","tag-gina-carano","tag-jon-jones","tag-mma","tag-ronda-rousey","tag-sports","tag-the-ufc","tag-tom-aspinall","tag-ufc","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}