Ronda Rousey Details Negotiation Breakdown With UFC, ‘They Care About Putting On The Most Cost Effective Fights’
On Tuesday, Netflix announced that Ronda Rousey will face Gina Carano in a dream fight on May 16.
Rousey previously confirmed that the fight was offered to Dana White and the UFC, but it didn’t work out. The fight will be under the promotional banner of Jake Paul’s MVP group.
Speaking to Jim Rome, Rousey detailed what went wrong with UFC negotiations.
“Originally, I wanted to do it for New Year’s, and I went to [Dana] and was like, ‘You always say I’m the best fighter you’ve ever worked with, reward me for it. Don’t punish me for being easy to work with. Give me the best deal you’ve ever given anybody.’ He’s like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna go back and get you the best deal I ever had.’ He came back and he literally brought me a deal where I would make more per pay-per-view buy than anybody in history. If I hit my historical numbers, which I know we would have been able to exceed, I would have made as much as I did in my entire career. I was like, ‘Hell yeah, Dana. High five. Thanks.’ Gina needed more time. It happened to go to the other side of when the ESPN deal and the PPV model would be ending and they would be going to streaming.
“They are now a publicly traded company. How do I put it? They didn’t want to set a precedent of giving me the guaranteed money that I deserve because once I raise that tide, it lifts all the boats. They just made a $7.7 billion deal at Paramount. It’s in their best interest to not put on the best fights possible, but spend as little money as possible so they can keep it. Dana is now legally obligated to maximize shareholder value. It’s not just about proving the concept of fighting and putting on the best fights possible and proving that this is a sport to be taken seriously. Now that they’ve sold the company, it’s kind of out of Dana’s hands, unfortunately. Now, it’s falling onto Hunter Campbell and UFC Corp, where they don’t care about putting on the best fights possible, they care about putting on the most cost-effective fights possible. It no longer made sense for me to go over there because they didn’t want to pay us the money we deserve, because then, for the rest of the time of the deal, they’re going to have to pay everybody else more. I decided to look elsewhere.”
The fight between the two will be contested at 145 pounds.
Ronda Rousey (12-2) has not fought since 2016 when she was KO’d by Amanda Nunes. Carano (7-1) has not fought since 2009 when she was stopped by Cris Cyborg.
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