The return of Ronda Rousey to combat sports has already produced headlines, but not only because of the fight itself. As she prepares to face Gina Carano on May 16 in the first MMA event streamed on Netflix under Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), the former UFC champion has also been candid about what went wrong during negotiations with her old promotion. Her comments paint a complicated picture: praise for Dana White personally, but sharp criticism of the system now running the UFC.

The UFC veteran addressed the situation during the launch press conference for the event in Los Angeles. When asked whether the failed talks with the UFC had created bitterness, she pushed back strongly.

“He (Dana White) was the one that, when they weren’t able to offer me a respectable deal under the streaming model, he was the one that was like, ‘I want you to make as much money as possible. Don’t stay here and take less from me,'” Ronda Rousey revealed. “He gave me his blessing to go out and do it on my own. If anyone’s been his apprentice on how to be a promoter, it’s been me.

“I let him know before anybody else that I had gone to Netflix, and I didn’t want him to be upset with me, and he was like, ‘I could never be upset with you. I love you so much. I want you to do great. I want this to be successful.’ He’s always been my friend first, before anything else. I think that most of my criticisms of the UFC now is because Dana isn’t the owner and he isn’t calling the shots and he isn’t running things the way that he wants because he’s an employee of the company now. He’s not an owner. And I think it was a big mistake of theirs to not let him just run things the way that he always has.”

‘Rowdy’ became the promotion’s first women’s bantamweight champion in 2012 and helped push the sport into the mainstream with eight straight finishes during her rise. So despite the criticism she’s been directing at the organization recently, she insists that her respect for Dana White hasn’t changed.

Her comments line up with what the UFC CEO himself revealed earlier this year during testimony related to ongoing antitrust lawsuits involving the UFC. The longtime promoter admitted that his role in fighter negotiations and contracts has changed significantly over time, with executives like Hunter Campbell now handling most of those discussions.

But the conversation didn’t stop at business strategy. Rousey also doubled down on her criticism of the UFC’s upcoming White House event, officially titled Freedom 250. When asked whether Dana White might be upset with her public comments, she responded bluntly.

“Oh, he knows the White House card sucks,” Rousey said with a laugh. “He knows that they were pushing this for over a year and it fell extremely short of expectations.”

Even so, the former champion framed the moment as something White himself taught her. During her time in the UFC, she watched how the longtime promoter handled criticism and controversy, often speaking openly even when it created backlash. And during the same press conference, she held nothing back when speaking about the promotion’s issues with fighter pay.

Ronda Rousey fires on the UFC’s “greed” as she rallies for better fighter pay

The conversation quickly shifted from Dana White to a bigger issue Ronda Rousey believes is hurting the sport: fighter pay. The UFC recently secured a $7.7 billion broadcast agreement with Paramount, one of the largest media deals in combat sports history. From a business standpoint, the company has never looked stronger. Yet Rousey argues that success at the top hasn’t translated to better conditions for fighters lower on the ladder.

“It used to be that the UFC was the best place that you could come in combat sports to make a living and be paid fairly. And now it’s no longer.. It’s one of the worst places to go,” Rousey said. “These people, a lot of them at the ground level, can’t even support their families. They’re living poverty level, fighting full-time. This company just got $7.7 billion.

“There’s no reason that they can’t afford to pay their athletes at least a living wage…. Why would they expect to get the best athletes and aspiring kids that want to be something into MMA?”

From her perspective, the long-term consequences could be serious. If elite athletes see better financial opportunities elsewhere, whether they be in boxing, other sports, or entertainment, the sport of MMA risks losing the next generation of talent.

So, on one hand, Ronda Rousey continues to speak warmly about Dana White, the man who helped bring women’s MMA into the UFC and backed her rise to superstardom. On the other hand, she believes the promotion itself has changed since the corporate shift. In her eyes, the problem isn’t necessarily the personalities involved, but the system now guiding the business.