Ronda Rousey has made it a point to shut up the doubters before her big return bout against Gina Carano for Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions on Saturday. Netflix’s debut MMA event has Rousey highly motivated to show how some notable names, in particular, should sit back and pipe down.
Rousey, 39, has been very vocal about challenging the UFC and giving back to fighters throughout her pre-fight build. That’s led to some shots taken, specifically at UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell, whom Rousey claims was the reason the Carano bout didn’t take place in the UFC. Former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev spoke last week about Rousey’s outspoken sentiments, insinuating that she is biting the hand that fed her and being ungrateful.
Rousey fired back at Chimaev at Thursday’s pre-fight press conference in Los Angeles.
“I would want to make something abundantly clear, and that’s that I owe [UFC CEO] Dana [White] and the Fertittas immensely,” Rousey said. “I would be caught dead before you ever heard me say a bad thing about any of them. My loyalty is to them, not the company they sold. I do not owe TKO’s UFC a damn thing.
“F***ing ‘Cleft Lip Lincoln’ is just hating because at his press conference for his fight, people were asking about me and my fight because no one gives a s*** about his ineffective wrestlef*** fests, and people can’t stop talking about this fight because it’s so stacked and they’re actually excited to see me fight because unlike ‘Kumquat,’ I have a 100% finish rate.”
It’s been nearly a decade since Rousey (12-2) last fought, when she suffered a brutal first-round defeat against Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in December 2016. She retired shortly after, turning her attention to the professional wrestling world and joining the WWE.
Carano (7-1), on the other hand, has been absent from competition for the past 17 years, focusing largely on her acting career.
In that span, Rousey’s fellow former Olympic medalist in judo, Kayla Harrison, has risen to prominence in the sport and captured Rousey’s old belt, the UFC bantamweight title. Harrison was recently critical of Rousey’s return bout, prompting a fiery response from Rousey, and Harrison later followed up by saying her counterpart is just “chasing money.”
Once again, Rousey offered up a passionate response.
“This is professional fighting, and there’s no such thing as discount greatness in professional fighting,” Rousey said. “The biggest money fight is the biggest fight, period. We obviously have very different definitions of greatness. Mine is making history, having a cultural impact and influencing the future of the sport.
“I already won a record eight consecutive title fights. There’s nothing left for me to do there, so now me and Gina are smashing the record for the most women have ever been paid in combat sports. And who’s to say we can’t parlay the success with this to me and her making a genre-shattering martial arts promotion with Netflix after this? Who says the success of this fight can’t be the rival that the UFC needs and give fighters the bargaining power that they’ve never had?
“If we knock this out of the park, I could become the face of MVP and MMA and the most powerful figure since Dana. I’m not chasing greatness, motherf***er, I am greatness. These b****es are chasing me.”
Rousey vs. Carano will close out an 11-fight card inside Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome. In the other two feature bouts, Nate Diaz battles Mike Perry, while former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou takes on Philipe Lins.
