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Emma Clement | Senior Graphic Artist<\/p>\nRonda Rousey hasn\u2019t competed in mixed martial arts in nearly a decade. Nevertheless, she\u2019s co-headlining Netflix\u2019s first live MMA broadcast, set to take place in May.<\/p>\n
Emma Clement | Senior Graphic Artist<\/p>\n
Her opponent, Gina Carano, hasn\u2019t fought in almost 17 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the co-main event, Francis Ngannou will make his long-awaited return to MMA after terminating his contract with the Professional Fighters League two years ago. His time in the PFL ended after just one fight, an Oct. 2024 win over Renan Ferreira that ended in less than four minutes.<\/p>\n
Ngannou will take on 40-year-old former UFC light heavyweight Philipe Lins, who also last competed in 2024, at UFC 299.<\/p>\n
The fighters don\u2019t get any younger in the third bout on the card. 40-year-old Nate Diaz and 34-year-old Mike Perry, who haven\u2019t fought in MMA since 2022 and 2021, respectively, will face off.<\/p>\n
Jake Paul\u2019s Most Valuable Promotions agency, which is promoting the event, has already risen to the pinnacle of boxing popularity \u2014 mainly through its occasional partnerships with Netflix.<\/p>\n
Netflix\u2019s transition into live sports, especially boxing, has been an overwhelming success.<\/p>\n
Its first combat sports event was an MVP boxing card on which Paul faced boxing legend Mike Tyson, which still stands as the most-streamed sporting event of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Netflix also drew tens of millions of viewers in 2025 for Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford \u2014 a Dana White venture \u2014 and Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua, another MVP-organized event.<\/p>\n
But MMA is a different beast.<\/p>\n
The UFC\u2019s monopoly on the sport limits other promoters\u2019 ability to secure superstars for their events.<\/p>\n
Still, Ngannou walked away from the UFC in 2023. Though I don\u2019t think anyone foresaw the return of Rousey and Carano, there are still some names outside the UFC who can sell an event.<\/p>\n
However, selling the event doesn\u2019t guarantee good fights.<\/p>\n
Rousey and Carano are adamant this fight has been in the making for a long time, but I still think ring rust is going to be hard to shake after a full decade of inactivity for the two athletes. It\u2019s a monumental return, but I\u2019m not expecting the highest level of MMA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No offense to Lins, but his last decision was a victory over Ion Cutelaba over two years ago. Ngannou\u2019s reputation as one of the hardest punchers in the sport is well-earned, and he\u2019ll likely prove it again. I\u2019m glad Ngannou\u2019s back, but he\u2019s not exactly facing the cream of the crop in this one.<\/p>\n
MVP also added former UFC flyweight Muhammad Mokaev \u2014 who fell out with the UFC in 2024 \u2014 and former UFC heavyweights Junior dos Santos and Robelis Despaigne.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This card will not have the long-running rivalry storyline of UFC 229 \u2014 when Conor McGregor faced off against Khabib Nurmagomedov \u2014 nor will it have the top-ranked fighters of UFC 284, in which Alexander Volkanovski fought Islam Makhachev. This time, the fighters on the main card aren\u2019t the biggest names in the sport.<\/p>\n
Still, this card will likely be the most-viewed MMA event of all time.<\/p>\n
UFC 229 sold a then-record 2.4 million pay-per-views. UFC 324, the first UFC event streamed on Paramount+, is now the most-viewed event of all time \u2014 peaking at 5.93 million concurrent viewers.<\/p>\n
I have little doubt Netflix will smash that record come May 16.<\/p>\n
MVP drew 33 million viewers for Paul vs. Joshua, which was effectively six and a half hours of filler fights until the main event. Now that Netflix has some familiar faces for its MMA debut, the UFC\u2019s viewership record will probably look measly in comparison.<\/p>\n
This might actually be a good thing.<\/p>\n
For too long, the UFC has used its monopoly to bleed its fighters thin, knowing there aren\u2019t any other options for those looking to prove they belong with the best of the best.<\/p>\n
The PFL was built to create a structured system for MMA, but its talent pool is shallow.<\/p>\n
Ngannou was its superstar, but only made the walk to the cage once. Besides Dakota Ditcheva and Usman Nurmagomedov, there\u2019s not much talent left in the PFL, as former standouts Michael Chandler, Patricio Pitbull and Aaron Pico have all joined the UFC.<\/p>\n
If any organization is capable of treating its fighters right, it\u2019s probably the one with Paul at the helm.<\/p>\n
Paul has long advocated for better fighter pay, singling out White and the UFC for their low salaries.<\/p>\n
When the UFC signed its absurd $7.7 billion deal with Paramount, White said it would lead to an increase in fighter pay.<\/p>\n
Since then, all it\u2019s amounted to is a change in bonuses, which only a few fighters a week earn. There\u2019s been no word on changing the contracts.<\/p>\n
If MVP can prove it can draw the fans\u2019 attention and pay its fighters what they deserve, the UFC may finally have competition. Rising prospects and established stars alike would undoubtedly prefer the bigger checks as long as they continue to fight against the best.<\/p>\n
Rousey vs. Carano will be the first indication of whether the UFC can truly have any competition, or if all new MMA organizations are simply doomed to fail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey hasn\u2019t competed in mixed martial arts in nearly a decade. Nevertheless, she\u2019s co-headlining Netflix\u2019s first live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-558731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558731","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=558731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}