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Most
\nValuable Promotions has stepped directly onto the UFC\u2019s turf. | \ud83d\udcf7:
\nMelina Pizano\/Getty for Netflix<\/p>\n
INGLEWOOD, California \u2014 Ronda That\u2019s not meant to set up a punchline about Dana Rousey (friend) and Ngannou (foe) experienced polar opposite The event will be headlined by Rousey\u2019s fantastical booking against For Rousey, 39, lobbing verbal grenades is nothing new. Doing so Weeks after nailing down the particulars with MVP, Netflix and \u201cMy success is their success, as well,\u201d Rousey said. \u201cShould I be Rousey initially reached out to White about returning to the UFC Carano, of course, transitioned from fighting to acting before \u201cOnce you come out of that dark place, things can\u2019t touch you the Carano doesn\u2019t recall much from the fight that precipitated her Rousey didn\u2019t want to be in the cage the night she absorbed a Neither woman discussed these hard moments during the year they \u201cSometimes I think the one person who would understand what I\u2019m \u201cI\u2019ve had a tremendous amount of sympathy for her knowing what she Rousey ventured to comeback against Carano on the final \u201cIt\u2019s been such a journey,\u201d said Rousey, a bronze medal-winning Jake After Netflix agreed in 2024 to make Paul\u2019s boxing contest against \u201cIf this does well, we 100% believe there will be more MMA with Contenders\/pretenders were repeatedly crushed in the \u201cI actually think [MMA is] more ripe for disruption than boxing in Streaming the next seven years on Paramount+ in exchange for $7.7 \u201cOnce they moved to the streaming model, it\u2019s not about putting on Compared to UFC\u2019s stranglehold on PPV, if Netflix, the biggest dog \u201cMMA is in a weird position right now, and it\u2019s the wild west,\u201d \nIntending to step into a cage to fight someday soon, the novelty of \u201cYou cannot go to the store or gas station or school and pay the
\nRousey<\/a> and Francis
\nNgannou<\/a> walk into the Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n
\nWhite<\/a>\u2019s favorite and least favorite fighters, but as always in
\nmixed martial arts, only time will tell.<\/p>\n
\nrelationships with White while they were under contract to the
\n
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a>. Now both are in the same camp,
\ndropping heavy artillery on the UFC CEO\u2019s company after joining
\nforces for
\nMMA\u2019s debut on Netflix on May 16<\/a>, inside the newest
\nstate-of-the-art arena in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\nGina
\nCarano<\/a> under the Most Valuable Promotions banner, while Ngannou
\nwill also have his second cage fight in four years. The current
\nlineal MMA heavyweight champion\u2019s streak of seven straight wins and
\na reputation for being the \u201cBaddest Man on the Planet\u201d are on the
\nline against unheralded Brazilian Philipe
\nLins<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\ntoward the UFC, however, represents a clear change, particularly
\nbecause her loud critiques of the ownership can\u2019t be separated from
\nthe talent agency that represents her interests as a client\u2014they
\nhave been one and the same since 2016.<\/p>\n
\nCarano, Rousey has not heard one word from anyone at William Morris
\nEndeavor about her decision to lambaste the company\u2019s stewardship
\nof the UFC, nor does she expect to.<\/p>\n
\nworried? The last thing you want is for me to be pissed off with
\nsomething to prove, as [UFC executive] Hunter Campbell is about to
\nlearn with this fight eclipsing anything he\u2019s ever done. We both
\nknow that we\u2019re much better allies than enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nlate in 2024 and let it be known that after the birth of her second
\ndaughter, she wanted to fight the woman who motivated her to try
\nMMA to begin with. Nine months pregnant, Rousey saw an interview
\nwith Carano and recognized that her MMA idol, whom she discovered
\nduring a 2007 fight with Julie
\nKedzie<\/a> on Showtime, needed her help.<\/p>\n
\nRousey made her amateur MMA debut in 2010. She received high-impact
\nroles in feature films and big-budget streaming series, but all of
\nthat quickly fell apart during the coronavirus pandemic when
\ncontroversial statements on social media cost Carano
\neverything.<\/p>\n
\nway they used to,\u201d said Carano, who in 2022 married the man who
\nintroduced her to fighting, muay thai pro Kevin Ross<\/a>.
\n\u201cAnd you\u2019re just so grateful to be standing here\u2014very flawed human
\nbeing, here\u2014and talk to all of you. I\u2019m so blessed because I was at
\nthe bottom and I\u2019m climbing back out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nmove into acting because the adrenaline dump she experienced
\nstanding across from Cristiane
\n\u201cCris Cyborg\u201d Justino<\/a> in 2009 made it feel like her soul left
\nher body.<\/p>\n
\npounding in less than a minute against Amanda
\nNunes<\/a>, but she felt pressured to return 13 months following a
\ncareer-rattling loss to Holly Holm<\/a>
\nthat snapped her perfect MMA record and cost her the UFC belt.<\/p>\n
\nworked together to find partners who would support their fight, yet
\nfor both of them, a sense of coming back from the brink works as
\nthe prevailing narrative for the event.<\/p>\n
\nfeeling right now is Ronda,\u201d Carano, 43, said. \u201cAnd I feel like she
\nprobably feels the same way. We\u2019ll see what happens in this fight,
\nbut I think we\u2019ll be fast friends after.<\/p>\n
\nwent through and was going through in all of her fights,\u201d she
\nadded. \u201cI\u2019ve felt that pressure. I felt that groundbreaking stuff,
\nbut not on the level she was feeling it. And so every time I\u2019d
\nwatch her and people would be hating on her, I\u2019d be like, \u2018Why are
\nthey hating on her? She\u2019s carrying the weight of MMA on her
\nshoulders right now, not just women\u2019s MMA.\u2019 She carried that sport
\nfor a second. So she\u2019s always really respected me, and even in our
\nlosses, I think that\u2019s cool we have that in common.\u201d<\/p>\n
\npay-per-view of UFC\u2019s ESPN deal last year. White offered the best
\nterms for which Rousey could have hoped, but Carano said she would
\nnot have been ready to fight by then. A few months later, the bout
\nwith Netflix and MVP gave the two famous women another moment to
\nmake the most of their situation.<\/p>\n
\nOlympic judoka in 2008, who at her peak was arguably the most
\ninfluential fighter ever to step inside the Octagon. \u201cSo many
\npeople tried to get in between us to insert their own agenda. We
\nwent from barely knowing each other and respecting each other to
\nbeing like, \u2018You know what? We\u2019re going to fight one another.\u2019 We
\nhave been on a collision course ever since I sat on a couch
\nwatching her on TV just in complete awe of what this woman was
\ndoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nPaul<\/a> Provides Drawing Power
\n
\nOpportunity. Fate. Will. Whatever led Rousey and Carano to MVP and
\nNetflix, the spring spectacle should determine if it makes sense
\nfor the world\u2019s largest streamer to step into MMA without the UFC
\nas a partner. Should the answer turn out to be yes, Netflix\u2019s 325
\nmillion subscribers could see an all-in move by MVP, a nearly
\nfive-year-old promotional company that specializes in women\u2019s
\nboxing and centers its major events around co-founder Jake
\nPaul<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nMike Tyson the platform\u2019s first-ever live sports broadcast, 125
\nmillion people streamed it worldwide. The YouTube sensation turned
\ncombat sports mover and shaker can\u2019t train or spar for anything
\nresembling a fight at the moment. He needs several more months to
\nrecover from a second surgery on the broken jaw he suffered boxing
\nagainst Anthony
\nJoshua<\/a> in December during MVP\u2019s third card with Netflix. Unable
\nto appear on the streamer\u2019s first MMA showcase, Paul will watch
\nfrom cageside with his partner, Nakisa Bidarian, as their venture
\ncrosses into the UFC\u2019s turf.<\/p>\n
\nNetflix,\u201d Bidarian said.<\/p>\n
\npay-per-view-driven MMA world of the past. Upstarts came and went
\nwith next to no shot of convincing fans to fork over money for
\ntheir product. That seemed to be reserved exclusively for the UFC,
\nand attempts to prove otherwise usually ended face first on the
\nfloor. But 10 years after Endeavor purchased the UFC from Frank and
\nLorenzo Fertitta for $4 billion, the company has undergone a
\nmassive shift away from the business model that drove hundreds of
\nmillions of dollars into its coffers and acted like a force field
\nagainst competitors with big ambitions.<\/p>\n
\nmany ways,\u201d Bidarian said. \u201cIn boxing, you have an ecosystem of all
\nthese phenomenal promoters that have existing fight rosters and
\nhistory and legacy that is meaningful to the sport. The UFC has
\ndone a tremendous job of becoming the reference brand for the
\nsport, but they haven\u2019t kept up with that brand in terms of how
\nthey treat athletes and fighters. So I think if someone came in and
\nactually showed a path for fighters that really valued them first
\nand foremost and had the right distribution partner, which is a
\ncritical component, then there\u2019s an opportunity for a true No. 2 in
\nthe marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nbillion, the end of UFC\u2019s PPV business quickly impacted what value
\nand leverage mean across the space.<\/p>\n
\nthe best fight possible anymore,\u201d Rousey said. \u201cDana is legally
\nbeholden to maximizing shareholder value, and unfortunately, now
\nthat they\u2019ve taken the reins of the company away from him, it\u2019s
\nbarely recognizable now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nin the yard, likes what it sees and jumps into MMA in a real way,
\nZuffa\u2019s foothold over the streaming market suddenly seems less
\nentrenched\u2014even if Paramount eventually merges with Warner Brothers
\nDiscovery.<\/p>\n
\nPaul said. \u201cI believe we have a massive opportunity here to disrupt
\nthe whole space and to put fighters first and get them the pay they
\ndeserve, the platform that they deserve. I believe the UFC is
\ndying, and MVP is here to take over.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nPaul\u2019s MMA debut should attract viewers whenever that comes. \u201cI
\nthink me versus Francis would be massive,\u201d said Paul, whose
\nbackside Ngannou promised to beat if given the chance. MVP
\noriginally approached Ngannou with a match against Dutch
\nheavyweight kickboxer Rico
\nVerhoeven<\/a>. That failed to materialize when Verhoeven took a
\npage out of Ngannou\u2019s book by challenging Oleksandr Usyk for the
\nboxing heavyweight championship of the world. Ngannou\u2019s life after
\nthe UFC includes two lucrative boxing bouts against Tyson Fury<\/a>
\nand the aforementioned Joshua that earned him tens of millions of
\ndollars.<\/p>\n
\nfee with legacy,\u201d Ngannou said. \u201cYou have to understand that. That
\nis bulls— that promotions feed fighters, and they\u2019re all there
\nfighting for legacy. Good for you. Keep your legacy, give me my
\npay.\u201d<\/p>\n