As Ronda Rousey prepares for a high-profile return to MMA to fight Gina Carano on the MVP x Netflix card on May 16, her heaviest shots are being thrown not at an opponent, but at her former home, the UFC. Although the beef came as a surprise, the global superstar had her reasons. And it has everything to do with fighter payout in the Dana White-led promotion.

“I feel like we’re at a crossroads for the sport, and this is the beginning of a big change that is long overdue,” Rousey said on her YouTube channel. “I meant it when I said that the UFC is suffering from a lack of competition. They’ve become too comfortable with being the dominant force in the industry, and just making fighters offers where they go, ‘Take it or leave it, what else are you going to do?’

It used to be that UFC was the best way to make money in combat sports. Now it’s becoming the worst place to make money in combat sports. It used to be anti-establishment, and now it’s become the establishment. And I’ve always been an ‘anti’ kind of b*tch. [Laughs]”

Founded in 1993, the UFC leveraged star-making rivalries and fighters like Ronda Rousey to gradually establish the market monopoly it holds today over competitors like the PFL.

But with that market dominance, ‘Rowdy’ believes, it has overlooked some of the fighters’ demands. Just a few years back, we saw the example of former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who just wanted a better contract offer as part of renewal. However, the UFC executives weren’t ready to meet those demands.

As a result, ‘The Predator’ looked for lucrative opportunities elsewhere. Ngannou ventured into professional boxing, where he fought Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Although the former UFC champion lost, he reportedly made around $30 million from those two fights. If it were in the UFC, Ngannou would have hardly made $3-4 million.

Ngannou’s payday is a prime example that lends weight to Rousey’s claim. This explains why ‘Rowdy,’ who was once the face of the leading MMA promotion, is now making her comeback under Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions and Netflix. That said, do you think her relationship with the UFC executives also turned sour?

Ronda Rousey blames everyone except Dana White

Almost everyone in the combat sports community is well aware of the bond between Rousey and Dana White. The UFC CEO often labeled the California native as one of his favorite fighters. So while Rousey has been throwing shots at UFC, she hasn’t spoken anything against White.

But why is the man in charge getting a pass? Well, Rousey believes there is nothing White could do to help the fighters, as he no longer handles the contract negotiations and matchmakings.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been a company woman,” Rousey continued. “And was very grateful while I was there, but I feel like since they’ve taken the reigns away from Dana they’ve really lost their way, and they think that they’re too big to fail, and that they can just disappoint the fans over and over, and they don’t care how many casual fans they lose, because they’ve got their streaming, and ‘F—k you, we got ours.’

I think they need to be reminded of the precariousness of their situation, and they need to start appreciating the fighters that give everything that they do any value at all. I think that they’ve forgotten that, and I’m coming to remind them.”

However, White wanted Rousey to make her return in the UFC. To that end, they even discussed booking for the second half of 2025. But ‘Rowdy’ wanted more time as she had a newborn daughter to take care of.

And in 2026, the Paramount+ CBS deal took effect, which scrapped all PPV points for all fighters. For those unversed, pay-per-view points are contractual bonuses where fighters earn a percentage of revenue from every PPV buy for an event they headline. Typically reserved for champions and top stars like Rousey, this system allows fighters to earn millions beyond their base purse.

However, following its discontinuation under the Paramount era, UFC didn’t offer Rousey a lucrative deal. Well, that was enough for the inaugural women’s UFC bantamweight champion to look elsewhere. And that is when Jake Paul’s MVP and Netflix came into the picture.

Rousey’s fight against Carano will test whether leaving the UFC’s financial structure pays off for her legacy and bank account.