Ronda Rousey announcing her comeback nearly a decade after her last fight was almost as shocking as her sudden disdain towards the UFC as she continues promoting her upcoming showdown against Gina Carano.
When she initially addressed the genesis behind her return and the Carano fight, Rousey revealed she approached the UFC with the idea about the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement before she ultimately teamed up with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotion instead. But since then, Rousey has gone
on the offensive, trashing the current state of the UFC, how fighters are being treated, the massive changes she’s recognized now that the organization is owned by TKO Group Holdings and even taken direct aim at executives such as UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell.
Considering UFC CEO Dana White once called her “the greatest athlete I’ve ever worked with,” Rousey’s opinion towards her former employers has dramatically changed.
“First off, I think I would start with, and I can’t believe I’m going to do this, but I’m going to defend Ronda a little bit, which is the oddest thing ever because Ronda is her own worst enemy and a very difficult person to defend,” UFC legend Matt Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “But I think the reason she got so turned off was when they got rid of the pay-per-view model. That’s where she was making all of her money was the pay-per-view and now she sees there’s no pay-per-view. There’s no way to truly make a lot of money. Pay-per-view points was how she made the biggest paycheck. I think that was the initial thing that rubbed her the wrong way. She said herself she approached the UFC to fight Gina Carano first and then because of the streaming model, she ends up not going with the UFC and going with Netflix where I guess they’re not doing pay-per-view model there either, but she’s getting however much she’s getting paid.
“But I get where she’s coming from on that, and I don’t think she’s wrong on a lot of things that she’s saying. She’s not the only one saying it. I feel like in the last month or two since Paramount’s come on, I felt more vitriol and anti-UFC than ever before. There is so much negativity and complaining about the UFC lately. It’s crazy.”
As much attention as Rousey’s comments towards the UFC has received since she started taking aim at the promotion, Brown can’t help but question her sincerity with what she’s saying.
He has little doubt that Rousey is genuinely angry and upset with the UFC for not offering her a better deal to make the Carano fight happen. But Brown wonders if Rousey is actually trying to affect change for all fighters or if she’s just mad that the UFC didn’t take care of her personally when she finally decided to compete again.
“I think her real intentions are a pity party thing and she does that a lot,” Brown said. “She plays that victim mentality a lot. I think that’s a character flaw, so to speak, of hers. I think she has a lot of internal issues that kind of come out in the public a lot. I think that’s really what’s going on.
“She’s not necessarily saying all this to try and change the sport or try to help the future of MMA or anything. But she wants the attention, and she wants to say something that gets people’s emotions going about her. She wants to feel valid and recognized and things like that. But she’s not wrong either.”
When she addressed her relationship with the UFC, Rousey previously stated that she had an incredible deal in place for the Carano fight but then the organization signed with Paramount and pay-per-views were dead in the water. Rousey claimed that her UFC deal would have paid her more than she’s ever made before but that was all contingent on how many buys the Carano fight produced.
That all went away once the UFC signed with Paramount and Rousey complained that the promotion wouldn’t offer her the same kind of guaranteed money to match what she expected to hear from pay-per-view points. Brown understands Rousey’s ire in that situation and that’s likely what led to her erupting
“When she approaches the UFC and approaches Dana White about this fight, and they’re kind of interested and then kind of brush her off, I mean her emotions got the best of her and she’s like ‘f*ck you motherf*ckers,’” Brown said. “I think that’s the kind of person she is. You’re either 100 percent with her or you’re 100 percent against her, which is part of her competitor mentality.”
That said, Brown doesn’t buy that Rousey would have the same opinion on the UFC if the deal she brokered would have paid her the guarantees she wanted.
“I don’t think she’s doing it because she thinks she’s going to invoke some change here in the world of MMA,” Brown said. “I think she’s doing it to get emotions out of people. I don’t want to say a pity party but get the attention on her. [The UFC is the worst] because they were the worst to her.
“If they would have given her a good deal on this fight, and she seen still how they’re doing other fighters who are getting f*cked over like a Movsar [Evloev] or something, who are getting f*cked over, she wouldn’t say anything about it. It all comes down to her.”
Rousey largely stepped away from the spotlight after her final fight in the UFC in 2016, and even when she eventually moved to professional wrestling with WWE, she rarely spoke about her MMA career much less any issues she had with her former employers.
But if Rousey really wants to change how fighters are treated, and her problems with the UFC go beyond this one particular fight, Brown hopes she uses her platform to voice those concerns beyond just her upcoming showdown against Carano.
“If she actually wants to invoke some change, and actually wants to see a better sport, I hope that’s her intention,” Brown said. “People change. People grow up. People evolve. People get better.
“As long as she’s out there saying the right things, I’ll overlook the actual intention behind it, the motivation and at least someone who has a huge name is saying some of the right things.”
