Conor McGregor might be feeling ecstatic after UFC, following weeks of negotiations, finalized his comeback for UFC 329 in July. But Ronda Rousey feels the Irishman should be furious at UFC CBO Hunter Campbell for botching his return announcement. According to the former bantamweight champion, UFC announcing their biggest star’s comeback fight during Francis Ngannou’s walkout on the MVP MMA 1 card earlier this month was a “dumb move.” As such, she firmly believes Campbell is the one who deserves the blame for mixing up the two.

“Instead of letting Conor be the main headline of the day, they basically blew that wad in the middle of our card and tried to pull away from it during Francis’ walkout,” Rousey said on Up and Adams with Kay Adams podcast. “And man, I’d be so pissed if I was Conor. It almost felt like the news of his comeback got buried because it was announced during our card.

“It kind of adds to the storyline of UFC vs. MVP being juxtaposed against one another. And it felt like such a dumb move. I’m sure it came straight from Hunter because he’s objectively terrible at his job.”

While there is no evidence to suggest that Hunter Campbell intentionally decided to announce the Irishman’s comeback during Francis Ngannou’s walkout, considering he’s the CBO of the company and MVP had such a big event lined up that day, it’s surprising that the two happening at the same time was purely coincidental and completely unintentional. However, with the accusations piling on, Dana White cleared the air around it.

During an interview with Fred Talks Fighting, White clarified that there was no preconceived plan behind announcing McGregor’s fight during the MVP card. In fact, the UFC boss dismissed the entire narrative by saying, “I could give a f–k” about Jake Paul’s promotion. Though White appeared dismissive of any agenda behind the former two-division champion’s fight announcement, it would not be a stretch to say the timing of the reveal clashed with Ngannou’s big fight on Jake Paul’s MVP card.

Regardless, Ronda Rousey calling Hunter Campbell “dumb” appears to carry a personal grudge as well.

Ahead of her fight with Gina Carano, ‘Rowdy’ revealed that she personally pitched the matchup to the UFC, with Hunter Campbell heavily involved in the negotiations. According to Rousey, the talks quickly soured. As she claimed, the UFC CBO was being an “a–hole” regarding their fight. The former UFC bantamweight champion even went as far as calling Campbell a “chauvinist.” Later, Rousey also blamed Campbell for what she described as the UFC’s overall decline behind the scenes.

Now, as the Riverside native is clearly not pleased with how the UFC CBO handled Conor McGregor’s return announcement, she has also cleared the air regarding her own ideas about making a comeback. 

Ronda Rousey shares green light on a comeback fight against former foe

Following her 17-second win over Gina Carano, Ronda Rousey confirmed her second retirement in front of the crowd at Intuit Dome. However, it seemed the former champ still had more to offer inside the cage because of how dominantly she won the fight. Now, Rousey has cleared the air, adding that a comeback could be possible only if she gets the chance to face her former foe, Holly Holm.

“I said I’m retired, A and B, I think that I am a completely different fighter now,” Rousey said on the same podcast. “I would clean her clock and definitely now that I got that new medication. I took it before. I was diagnosed with cortical spreading depression, which was always happening in my last fights, and basically why I was like, I need to stop. I thought my concussions were catching up to me.”

At UFC 193, Holm became the first woman to hand Rousey a professional career loss with a second-round head-kick knockout, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in women’s MMA history. Later, Amanda Nunes repeated the feat at UFC 207. However, Rousey revealed that her history with concussions contributed heavily to those brutal knockout losses.

Now that she is taking medication and has already competed in another MMA bout, the possibility of a comeback appears more realistic, especially with Holm already showing interest in a rematch. That said, if Rousey plans another return, she would undoubtedly attract major attention. And with her experience as a promoter, she could even go toe-to-toe with the UFC when it comes to fight announcements.