Ronda Rousey is approaching her fight with Gina Carano as larger than a ‘one-off’ event.
Most Valuable Promotions has released its Uncut video, featuring Rousey and Carano attending a photoshoot at Netflix as the promotion for the May 16 fight on the streamer begins.
Rousey is positioning this fight as a bigger one between MVP and UFC, with the former champion indicating she will be pushing that angle:
The story and everything behind it is just this fight, but a lot of it is MVP vs. UFC, and that’s where I’m going to fucking go very hard in the trenches.
They are suffering from a lack of competition, and they can’t just make a class-action lawsuit every couple of years, the cost of doing business. So, I’m really trying to help Dana out (laughs). And if anyone has been groomed to be his apprentice, it’s me. I think I’d be the most favorite adversary he’s ever had.
Last week, Rousey spoke on The Jim Rome Show about pitching the fight to the UFC and felt the promotion wasn’t going to pay them what they deserved:
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 money as possible so that you can keep it.
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.
Dana White was asked on Saturday night at the UFC post-fight press conference if he was disappointed that he wasn’t hosting the fight and said, ‘It didn’t work out, but I’m happy for her (Rousey), adding that he and Gina Carano are in a good place. Carano backed out of negotiations with the UFC years ago after receiving a text from White referring to Carano as a ‘bitch’ and asking the UFC head if it was intended for someone else, and White said it was not. Years later, White apologized to Carano.
Rousey and Carano will fight on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, in a five-round featherweight contest.
