Ronda Rousey cleared the air about her relationship with UFC president Dana White as Rousey prepares her return to the octagon for another company.
“I love Dana,” Rousey, 39, exclusively told Us Weekly as she prepares to fight Gina Carano May 16 on Netflix. “He’s always going to be one of my closest friends.”
Rousey said she has “allegiance” to White, 56, and Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta — the trio who bought the UFC for $2 million in 2001 and sold it for roughly $4 billion in 2016 — but she feels no ties to “the company that [White] sold.”
“He understands that and he doesn’t take any of this personal,” Rousey said of White. “Pretty much all of my gripes with the company come from things that are totally outside of his control.”
Ronda Rousey Calls Out UFC Champion for ‘Selling Pictures’ on OnlyFans
Rousey last fought in the UFC in December 2016, a loss to Amanda Nunes. For the highly-anticipated fight against Carano, 44, Rousey has partnered with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Productions to stream the fight live on Netflix.
Paul, 29, has never been afraid to stoke controversy or ruffle feathers, which Rousey said makes him the perfect man for the job.
“It’s not the promoter’s job to be universally liked,” Rousey argued. “It’s a promoter’s job to get people to watch fights. It’s the fighter’s job, while promoting the fight, not to get everyone to like them, but to drive the discussion, to make people have a passionate opinion about them. [Paul] is just a natural at being that lightning rod and disruptor.”
Ronda Rousey Slams Joe Rogan, Says He’s ‘Just a Fan With an Audience’
Rousey — who competed in WWE from 2018 to 2023 — has found freedom in having a voice like never before while promoting her upcoming fight.
“When I was able to shift from working for a promoter, whether that be WWE or UFC, to [saying], ‘I am the promoter,’ then it was like, ‘Oh, I can promote this event however I want,” Rousey explained. “I actually have power here to dictate who was part of this event and how to run things.”
She continued, “I am leading the way and I am dictating what this promotion is going to be in the space of MMA. So, what do I want that to be? What do I feel like is missing? I’m trying to embody everything that I’ve seen gone missing in MMA.”
Rousey fights Carano in the main event of Most Valuable Promotions’ May 16 card, streaming live on Netflix at 9 p.m. ET from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
