Those who were around for Ronda Rousey’s original UFC reign know she loves to stir some s–t and tell it like it is. But now that she’s jumped from UFC to Jake Paul’s MVP for her upcoming May 16th fight against Gina Carano, she’s letting it rip on just how far her former fight promotion has fallen over the last ten years.
Rousey fired a shot across UFC’s bow when she revealed that the promotion refused to pay her what she was worth, saying “It’s in their best interest not to put on the best fights
possible, but to spend as little as money as possible so that [they] can keep it.” She then kicked Dana White when he was down, adding to the mountain of criticism the UFC boss got after his Freedom 250 card at the White House got unanimously booed for being painfully mediocre.
“Ngannou vs. Lins joins Rousey vs. Carano on Netflix on May 16,” Rousey wrote the day after the White House announcement. “How’s THAT for a BAMF-laden double headliner? That’s what happens when you put fighters and fans ahead of shareholders. P.S. UFC’s White House card sucks.”
She went even further at the Rousey vs. Carano launch presser in Los Angeles today (Tue. Mar. 10, 2026), outright saying the White House card sucks and Dana White knows it sucks.
“Oh, he knows the the White House card sucks,” Rousey said. “Like, he knows that they were pushing this for over a year and it it fell extremely short of expectations. I mean, he was so upset about it. He was talking about a fight falling out the day before. I can I can guarantee you he’s not he’s not happy with it either. And he’s the one that that taught me through example to speak my mind.”
Rousey is pulling off some epic frenemy thing at the moment where she’s trashing the UFC while simultaneously telling us how much she loves and respects Dana White.
“When they weren’t able to offer me a respectable deal under the streaming model, he was the one that was like, ‘I want you to make as much money as possible. Don’t stay here and take less for me.'” she said. “He gave me his blessing to go out go out and do it on my own.”
“And if anyone’s been his apprentice on how to be a promoter, it’s been me. After, I let him know before anybody else that I had gone to Netflix, and I didn’t want him to be upset with me. And he was like, ‘I could never be upset with you. I love you so much. I want you to do great. I want this to be successful.’ You know? He’s always been been my friend first before anything else.”
That’s so lovely! On the other hand, Rousey is pointedly not a fan of the current UFC regime now that they’ve sidelined White.
“I think that most of my criticisms of the UFC now is because Dana isn’t the owner, and he isn’t calling the shots, and he isn’t running things the way that he wants, because he’s an employee of the company now. He’s not an owner. And I think it was a big mistake of theirs to not let him just run run things the the way that he always has.”
