Ronda Rousey has discussed the breakdown of an initial deal with the UFC for her upcoming fight against Gina Carano.
Appearing on The Jim Rome Show on Friday, Rousey explained the move to Most Valuable Promotions. She also provided an update on her head trauma history.
Rousey said she initially approached UFC President Dana White about scheduling the encounter for the New Year. White was said to have offered a lucrative deal tied to pay-per-view performance. However, Carano required more preparation time, pushing the timeline into the company’s new non-PPV structure with Paramount Plus.
Rousey claimed the UFC’s corporate structure prioritized cost-effectiveness over premium matchups. She consequently opted to partner with Most Valuable Promotions for the Netflix broadcast.
Gina needed more time. And it happened to go to the other side of when ESPN deal and their pay-per-view model would be ending and they would be going to streaming.
And, you know, they’re now a publicly traded company. And they, 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. And they just made a $7.7 billion deal at Paramount. So it’s in their best interest, actually, not to put on the best fights possible, but to spend as little as money as possible so that you can keep it.
Rousey went on to claim that UFC executives no longer cared about maximizing the quality of fights.
So it no longer made sense for me to go over there because they didn’t want to pay us the money that we deserve. Because then, for the rest of the time of the deal, they’re going to have to pay everybody else more. And so then I decided to look elsewhere.
Jim Rome also asked Rousey about her history with concussion symptoms, and whether this was a concern.
Rousey replied that Dana White had directed Rousey to the Cleveland Clinic to assess her neurological health. Medical professionals conducted extensive testing to investigate her recurring vision loss. Doctors concluded her symptoms likely stem from migraine auras rather than enduring damage.
Dr. [Charles] Bernick at the Cleveland Clinic says that, “I’m listening to all of your symptoms. I’ve looked at all your scans. Your brain looks great.” And I was telling him about my history. And as a kid, I would get migraines all the time. And epilepsy runs in my family.
Every generation in my family, someone’s had epilepsy. There’s some sort of link between epilepsy and migraines. And he was saying that people that get migraines are more susceptible to getting concussions. And the more concussions I get, the easier it is for me to get a migraine.
Rousey noted that she recently secured a preventative medication to manage the condition. However, she plans to enter the cage with the intention of avoiding strikes altogether.
What he [Bernick] thinks is happening is that I’m not actually getting a concussion every single time that this is happening. He thinks that it’s setting off what’s called migraine aura, where you just lose big chunks of your vision. […] Just recently, we’ve been able to find something that I can take that’s preventative, that hopefully will be able to resolve this issue for me, which is life-changing.
The encounter between Rousey and Carano will stream on Netflix on May 16, 2026.
Read John Pollock’s piece on Carano and Rousey’s roles in elevating the status of women’s MMA.
