“I got something in the works that you will never f***ing see coming, for 2025, that literally started coming together last night.” That’s what Dana White said back in December 2024. And immediately, everyone wondered what this tease might be. But according to a UFC insider, it was related to Ronda Rousey.

“Do you remember that press conference in Tampa at the very end of the year, December of 2024?” said Ariel Helwani on his show. “When Dana White dropped a hint and a tease of what was to come next year, something that we could have never imagined that came out of the blue? Do you guys remember this? In case you forgot, take a listen…

We finally got the answer to that mystery. We finally figured it out. It was that fight. It was Ronda versus Gina, that was the one we were talking about. What’s this fight? What’s this fight? Is it Tom vs. Jon? Is it this that?… So look at the enthusiasm, look at the excitement, and does that mean? We can add this fight to the list of the fights that they haven’t made over the past year, or maybe even more than that. Ilia-Islam now and all these other Jon-Ngannou, Jon and Aspinall, on and on it goes, Jon and Pereira, crazy.”

During that time, there were several intriguing and super matchups in the air. For that reason, as soon as Dana White teased about the mystery matchup, many believed matchups like Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou, or Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria would come into the picture.

With that said, they had their reasons to speculate that. For starters, Jones was eyeing his first UFC heavyweight title defense, while Ngannou just became the PFL Super Fights Heavyweight champion. Hence, many called for a UFC vs. PFL bout between the two. Along with that, Topuria just knocked out Max Holloway to cement his reign in the featherweight division.

Following that, he teased a move up to the UFC lightweight division, where Makhachev was reigning as the champion. But of course, according to Helwani, those were not UFC’s plans. As Ronda Rousey announced her MMA return against Gina Carano under the Most Valuable Promotions, the veteran journalist noted it was Dana White & Co. who first intended to promote this bout.

But was that the case? And according to Rousey, Helwani’s claim was accurate.

Ronda Rousey reveals UFC return talks

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano are arguably the pioneers of women’s MMA. Although Carano hasn’t officially fought under the UFC banner, Rousey was the inaugural women’s bantamweight champion. But after their stint in MMA, both of them went their separate ways.

Carano ventured into movies, while ‘Rowdy’ started making professional wrestling appearances. However, amid that, they wanted to make a comeback after agreeing to fight each other, and surprisingly, it was Dana White whom they approached first.

“I asked Dana if he would be interested, and he’s like ‘of course, I’d be interested,'” said Rousey on The Jim Rome Show. “He sent me this voice memo when I can tell he’s super excited about something because he stutters and he’s stuttering all over the place. I’m like, he’s down! Originally, I wanted to do it for New Year’s, and I went to [Dana], and I’m like you always say, I’m the best fighter you ever worked with, reward me for it. Don’t punish me for being easy to work with. Give me the best deal you ever gave anybody.

He’s like, ‘all right, I’m going to go back and get you the best deal I’ve ever had.’ But Gina needed more time [to get ready], and it happened to go to the other side when the ESPN deal and the pay-per-view model would be ending, and it would be going to streaming [on Paramount+].”

According to Rousey, the bout was speculated to be on the last pay-per-view event in 2025 under the ESPN era. But due to certain delays, the fight never happened. And after the Paramount deal came in, the payout wasn’t as per Rousey and Carano’s expectations.

Hence, they ultimately decided to join hands with MVP and Netflix. That said, who do you think wins between Rousey and Carano on May 16? Let us know in the comments below!