Ahead of May 16, Ronda Rousey is clearly preparing for her battle against Gina Carano. However, nobody expected ‘Rowdy’ to wage a promotional war against the UFC before her return to the cage. At the center of her feud? The good old issue of UFC fighter pay, which has led Rousey to question the entire system of Dana White‘s promotion for not paying fighters their fair share of revenue. And now, she’s got some unexpected support from Joe Rogan.

The UFC color commentator has maintained good relations with the company, as the UFC CEO is his good friend, who helped kickstart his career as a commentator back in 2001. Still, when it comes to the sensitive discussion of fighter pay, Rogan sided with Ronda Rousey, as he believes the former UFC women’s bantamweight champ has some good points.

“Like, you know, Ronda Rousey… she’s promoting the Netflix fight,” Rogan said in JRE MMA Show #176 with Dustin Poirier. “I don’t know if you saw what she said, but she had the big long speech about the UFC selling for 7 billion dollars, and these fighters aren’t making enough money. You know, she made some good points, and the most important thing is that she gets the conversation out there and it puts pressure on the UFC to pay people more,” he added.

For context, Ronda Rousey was on a collision course with Joe Rogan last year as she criticized the UFC commentator for his MMA knowledge. But this time, they’ve found common ground in the ongoing debate around UFC fighter pay. Why? Even though Rogan has been working with White and Co. for over two decades, he’s been very transparent about fighters earning more money.

In January, the 58-year-old podcaster-commentator expressed in one of the podcast episodes that he’d give fighters most of the money and “f— up the whole business model,” showing disdain for the UFC’s current payout structure, which reportedly pays fighters 16–18% of its revenue. So, when Rousey made similar points, Rogan ended up supporting her views on fighter pay. Moreover, his stance on the subject hasn’t changed much, as he used his own comedy club’s example to make a point.

“I have always been of the opinion that fighters should be making more money, period,” Rogan added in the podcast with Dustin Poirier. “Like the same way I feel about the way I run my comedy club, the comedians make 80% of the money. Because that’s who you’re paying to see. You’re paying to see them.”

Now, as Joe Rogan backed Ronda Rousey’s comments and went against the UFC’s current fighter pay model, UFC veteran Matt Brown also supported the former 135-pound queen’s claims against her former promotion, although he questioned her motives. But, unlike others, the UFC color commentator also shed light on how Paramount’s biggest competitor could change the whole game in MMA.

Joe Rogan believes Netflix can become UFC’s competitor

Following the $7.7 billion, seven-year deal with Paramount+ CBS, the UFC has strengthened its market dominance even further. However, amid very little competition, Jake Paul’s MVP shocked everyone by hosting a marquee event on Netflix. With that move, many believed the streaming giant could actually compete with the UFC, and Joe Rogan even believes they can become serious players in the market if they follow the boxing model in MMA.

“But if anybody’s got that kind of money, it’s Netflix,” Rogan said on the JRE podcast with Dustin Poirier. “They throw around a lot of ridiculous money, they make so much money. So, they can kind of do that. The question is, are they going to do that more than once? If they do that more than once, then what happens is it’s all about the name of the fighters, just like boxing.

Like in boxing, nobody cares if it’s Golden Boy or Bob Arum… nobody cares about that. What they care about is who’s fighting whom. Is it Benavidez? Who’s he fighting? Bivol? Let’s go. That’s a great fight. So if Netflix can kind of do the boxing thing, like putting on big-name stars, they would be a major player,” he added.

But there’s one more side to this story. Luke Thomas, the veteran MMA journalist, claimed on X that the MVP-Netflix partnership is not looking to compete with the UFC as an organization, but on one-off events like the May 16 card, and that too, primarily on viewership. Ex-UFC vet Josh Thomson disagrees. He believes, “If MVP/Netflix decide to work together to sign the biggest talent for “One-Offs” once a month. Top fighters will leave in their prime for the much larger pay day w/MVP.”

Well, Netflix is all set to host Tyson Fury’s next fight against Arslanbek Makhmudov on April 11, 2026, where Conor Benn will also face Regis Prograis under Zuffa Boxing’s $15 million deal. So, they are already making big moves in boxing. Looking at their MMA card, where stars like Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano, and Nate Diaz will perform, it’s hard to see the event not being profitable.

If so, then it’s expected that Netflix will hold more MMA events as well, outside of Jake Paul’s MVP promotion. That said, what do you think about Joe Rogan supporting Rousey on her fighter pay take? Let us know in the comments section below.