The biggest news of the week, by far, is Ronda Rousey (and Gina Carano) are back!
Earlier this week, Most Valuable Promotions announced that Rousey is coming out of retirement to fight Gina Carano in an MMA bout this may. So, let’s talk about that, plus whatever else you hooligans have questions about.
Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano undercard
With the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano news, it opens the door for a lot of names to compete on the Netflix card. So, be the matchmaker: what other fights would you make for this card?
Great question,
Mike!
The announcement of Rousey vs. Carano caught me entirely off guard when it dropped earlier this week. Alexander K. Lee and I wrote about the event already, but there are so many more things to dive into, and this is one of the topics that has me most curious, because Rousey vs. Carano is going to big the biggest fight (viewership-wise) of the year, and so the supporting bouts are fascinating. Basically, every fighter not signed to the UFC or PFL should be trying to be involved in this thing. But who should MVP choose?
First, I think we keep the card tight. We don’t want a 14-fight sprawling MMA card like the UFC loves. Seven fights, max, on this thing, including the main event, so that leaves us with six undercard bouts to fill. Let’s assume that two of those get taken up by random fights with minimal broad appeal; just bouts between some people Jake Paul knows or maybe represents. So now we need four high-profile fights.
One of those fights should include Holly Holm. Let’s be honest, Holm is not an exciting fighter to watch, but she has a built-in storyline with Rousey, and if Rousey decides to fight again after this, at least set up the possibility for that rematch, even if it doesn’t come to pass. Holm can fight any random WMMA fighter in the opening main card bout.
Next up, let’s get Amanda Serrano in there. While Rousey might not be interested in fighting Holm again, she might be amenable to an MMA/boxing split with Serrano, where they each do one apiece. Again, maybe nothing comes of this, but you’re planting seeds of possibility for the future.
Then we’re going spicy. Rousey and Carano seem to be full of respect for each other, and that’s all well and good, but we need a different kind of matchup to bring some acidity to this meal; enter, Tony Ferguson vs. Dillon Danis (shoutout to DukeMadDuck, who threw this out on BTL Thursday). Ferguson would bring life and energy to all the press, and he’s always down for a fun scrap, and Danis would bring some much-needed villainy to the proceedings. It’s a perfect fight for the occasion, assuming MVP can pull it off with Misfits in the mix.
And lastly, this is truly the best idea: put Gable Steveson on this thing.
Everyone knows that Steveson is UFC-bound sooner or later, but why not make it later? Yes, there’s a belief that Steveson will join the promotion in time to fight at UFC White House, but that’s just tittle-tattle. As far as I know, Steveson hasn’t signed any papers yet, and if I were him, I wouldn’t. Fighting Netflix with Rousey and Carano will give the Olympic gold medalist the biggest possible profile, and as of right now, nothing is stopping him. Fight anyone — perhaps newly crowned BKFC champion Andrei Arlovski? — smoke them, and then turn around quickly for the White House card. OR, leverage MVP and UFC against each other and go with whoever is going to pay you.
And if I’m MVP, I absolutely want Steveson on this card. You don’t want this thing to be exclusively old names, and Steveson is young, bona fide, and extremely likely to deliver a big highlight. And even the UFC might not be too upset, as this could help boost Steveson’s profile before he inevitably comes to them. Everyone wins, so make it happen, MMA Gods.
Scheduling
Feels like the UFC is stalled with zero championship fights on the calendar. You think is has to do with the White House event? Without Jon Jones, Conor McGregor or Alex Pereira for the White House, what could be those 6 or 7 “amazing” fights? They don’t have enough stars for it, I believe. Thank you
I think the lack of championship fights on the schedule does have something to do with the White House card, but perhaps not what you think.
When the White House card was first announced, my belief was that it would be a huge letdown, a la Fight Island (which was just an arena they’d already had shows at before). After some time, I let my imagination get the better of me and began to think this might be fun, but now I’m all the way back. The UFC White House card is going to be deeply underwhelming for hardcore MMA fans.
Despite what some people have said, I just cannot imagine they actually put six or seven title fights on this card. My guess is this looks a lot like UFC 300, but this time the UFC learned from its mistakes. UFC 300 was such a big story for a long time because the promotion didn’t have fights for it, but booked out its slate ahead of the event, leaving few options for the big card. This time, the UFC is holding all the options to figure out which two or three title fights it wants at the White House, and then the other fights will get doled out after. It’s a better process, even though it’s a little frustrating for the fighters, I’m sure.
So, yeah, I’m not banking on anything “amazing” for UFC White House, because that’s not really what the promotion is after. This is going to be like UFC Sphere: some good fights, a unique and different atmosphere, but ultimately, just another fight card.
Where is the fun?
I was rewatching some older UFC with Anderson Silva taking LHW fights for fun while he was still MW champion. Do you think it’s the UFC or the fighters that stop the best fights from happening now?
I mean, it’s definitely both. As we’ve seen at the start of 2026, the UFC is not focused on the meritocracy of the sport, so we’re getting more “fun” fights than the best fighting the best. But also, the top level of MMA is inherently broken because the moment a fighter wins a belt, they can barely contain how disinterested in defending it they are. Ilia Topuria moved up to lightweight almost immediately, and would be on his way to welterweight right now if he had his druthers. Khamzat Chimaev finally won a title, and all he can talk about is fighting Alex Pereira. Pereira reclaimed his belt and has eyes on heavyweight. And, of course, Islam Makhachev moved up to welterweight and is trying to fight the shadow of Kamaru Usman for his first defense. And none of this even mentions the ever-present desire to go to boxing and get actually paid.
Ultimately, everything is the UFC’s fault because they’re in charge, and they’ve shown fighters that this is the way to get ahead in the game. But man, I wish things weren’t this way.
Bank Robbery
Look, I’m not writing this entire question out. You can go read it if you can’t read the image above, but the premise is right up my alley: pick four fighters to fill the role of characters in The Town to pull off a bank robbery. If you want to get into the mailbag, these are the sorts of hypotheticals that’ll do it.
First off, the Doug MacRay role, AKA the Leader. This is the easiest and most obvious answer possible, but it’s also the correct one: Lee Murray.
For those who don’t know, Murray is a former UFC fighter and all-around wild man (the stories about him are legendary) who masterminded and executed a £53 million Securitas depot robbery, which was, at the time, the largest cash robbery ever (and could have been bigger; they left another 150 million behind). Murray is a terrible human being and stone psycho, but if I’m planning a heist, there simply is not a better option in the world.
Second, the James Coughlin role, AKA the loose cannon/muscle of the group. Frankly, Murray also could fill this role admirably, and perhaps has more Jem in him than MacRay, but there is no shortage of crazy MMA fighters to call upon, and Murray’s heist experience is too valuable. If we’re being honest, I should probably pick someone like Datsik (if you don’t know how he is, congratulations, you have not been involved in MMA for way too long like I have), but Lee Murray is already odious enough, and I don’t want this to just be a crew of the worst people in MMA history, so instead, give me Charles Bennett, AKA Felony, AKA Krazy Horse.
The thing about Jem is, despite being a sociopath, he’s also somewhat endearing. Bennett is not nearly as bad a person as Jem is, but he’s also even more lovable, while retaining an immense amount of wild card energy. He fills the role nicely.
Third, Albert “Gloansy” Magloan, AKA the glue guy. Gloansy isn’t smart enough to plan a heist, or crazy enough to shoot it out with the cops in the street, but he’s takes nothing off the table, and is as resolute as a rock, with a bit of a selfless streak to him. If Dougie came to Gloansy to hurt somebody, he’d also be in immediately, but he might crack a joke or two as well, instead of turning the dial up even more. This feels like Max Holloway to me. Plus, Max has some heist experience, having previously helped Donnie Wilson rob the Federal Reserve in Den of Thieves.
Lastly, Desmond “Dez” Elden, AKA the other one. Not every player on a team is going to be an all-star, and that’s Dez. He’s a man with a specific set of skills, and he’s loyal, but he’s not bringing much to the table other than that. This is the hardest role to fill by far, and basically just means I need someone I can trust not to turn snitch when the big heist is completed. For that, give me Arnold Allen. After all, “Almighty” kind of even looks like him.
Now, let’s go get paid.
Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who sent in questions. Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send them to me. Every Sunday (sometimes I forget and it happens on Monday), I’ll put out a call for questions on The Feed. Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane; just drop your questions in there and let’s have fun.
