Ronda Rousey has said she can “guarantee” that UFC president Dana White is “not happy” with the quality of the promotion’s White House fight card.
On Saturday, the UFC announced its card for an unprecedented event on the South Lawn on 14 June, after hyping the show for six months. Fans expressed disappointment with what was unveiled, however, having been promised the greatest card in UFC history.
The announcement came days after the shock news that women’s MMA pioneers Rousey and Gina Carano will end their respective retirements on 16 May, as they prepare to clash live on Netflix – at an event organised by Jake Paul’s company Most Valuable Promotions (MVP).
Rousey has not fought since December 2016, when she failed to regain the UFC bantamweight title in a quick knockout loss to Amanda Nunes. Meanwhile, Carano last competed in 2009. The pair will square off at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
Rousey recently said the UFC actually had the chance to host her fight with Carano, but that White and co passed on the opportunity. But at a press conference on Tuesday, Rousey said she and the UFC president held no mutual ill will.
Yet the 39-year-old American also used her answer to take a swipe at the White House event, saying: “Oh, he knows the White House card sucks. He knows that they were pushing this for over a year and it fell extremely short of expectations.
“I mean, he was so upset about it, he was talking about a fight falling out the day before. I guarantee you he’s not happy with it either, and he’s the one that taught me – through example – to speak my mind.”
Rousey also alluded to the fact that Francis Ngannou, a former UFC champion, was this week added to the undercard of her fight with Carano, as the heavyweight phenom prepares to fight Philipe Lins. Ngannou joined MVP’s event just days after leaving the PFL, with whom he signed after leaving the UFC in early 2023.
“It used to be that UFC was the best place that you could come in combat sports to make a living and be paid fairly,” Rousey said, “and now it’s one of the worst places to go. It’s why so many of their top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere.
“These people, a lot of them at the ground level, they can’t support their families. They’re living poverty level [by] fighting full time. [The UFC] just got $7.7bn [for its Paramount+ broadcast deal]. There’s no reason that they can’t afford to pay their athletes at least a living wage – and not even that, to at least be able to match what these athletes are making in other sports.
“Why would they expect to get the best athletes, and the best aspiring kids that want to be something, into MMA? Why not go into football? Why not go into boxing? Why not go into anything else? So, they’re bleeding talent because of their short-term greed. They’re thinking about the next quarter. They’re thinking about the shareholders. They’re not thinking about their responsibility to be stewards of the future of the sport.
Ronda Rousey ơn Dana White: “He knows the White House card sucks. I guarantee you he’s not happy with it either.” #RouseyCarano
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) March 10, 2026
Saturday, May 16
LIVE on Netflix pic.twitter.com/P4gl7ryTZH
“Dana is legally beholden to the shareholders and to maximise shareholder value and, unfortunately, now that they’ve taken the reins of the company away from him, it’s barely recognisable now. They need to be saved from themselves, and luckily I’m here to be their hero.”
Rousey lifted the lid further on her previous conversations with White, as to what a fight with Carano, 43, might have looked like in the UFC.
“I knew that we could promote this on our own and [it would] probably be the most lucrative way to go about it for us,” Rousey said, “but I have such love and respect for Dana that I wanted to bring this to him first. I said I know I can do this on my own, but I would rather fight for you than to fight for me – just make it make sense for me.
“Originally we were going to do it New Year’s, and it was going to be the last fight under the pay-per-view model, and he offered me the best pay-per-view structure ever, and I was so grateful. But then Gina said she needed more time to get in the best shape possible, and that she wanted me to fight the best version of herself.
“I think that was fate, it was meant to be. It was meant to push us onto the other side, and once [the UFC] moved into the streaming model, it’s just not about putting on the best fights possible anymore.”
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