On Monday, Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry, as fun of a fight as you can get inside or outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, joined this year’s splashiest card. No, not “Freedom 250” (UFC White House is actually a better name), the UFC’s latest attempt to cash in off their relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, and Trump’s grand foray into sportwashing.

Rather, the fighter many hoped might return to the UFC in the near future, Diaz, will fight Perry, BKFC’s “King of Violence,” on the undercard of Most Valuable Promotion’s Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano tentpole on Netflix.

It’s spectacle, without question. But (and this is coming from someone who has always championed sport over spectacle), shouldn’t the White House card have been all about spectacle? Shouldn’t it have been an over-the-top extravaganza, rankings and relevance be damned?

Diaz-Perry is the sort of announcement you had hoped to hear when UFC CEO and President Dana White, looking concerningly run down these days (and who can blame him, with four promotions on the go between the UFC, UFC BJJ, Zuffa Boxing, and the freakshow that is PowerSlap), promised to reveal the much ballyhooed White House card during UFC 326 earlier this month.

Reveal it he did, with the card overshadowing the lackluster UFC 326 in Las Vegas itself. And when the big reveal did come, after two hours of build-up on CBS, it arrived with a whimper. None of the big names fight fans had hoped for, including Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, and yes even Nate Diaz were present. Instead, the UFC revealed what amounted to a very good numbered event— but not the sort of line-up that came anywhere close to meeting expectations.

Look, when Donald Trump came out and said there would be eight or nine title fights on the White House card, no one should have believed him. That was Trump being Trump, wielding hyperbole the way a hyperactive eight-year-old wields a Super Soaker. White, however, didn’t help himself when he claimed, as recently as January, that he expected to White House card to be “the biggest event ever done. By a long shot.”

Biggest event? Six fights, with Bo Nickal fighting Kyle Daukaus, who is a solid fighter catching undeserved strays thanks to extraordinarily uninspired matchmaking? That’s your biggest even ever done?

The biggest surprise to come from the White House announcement two Saturday’s ago, however, aside from how pedestrian it turned out to be, was Alex Pereira moving to heavyweight. Only, that wasn’t even a surprise: Dana White had already announced that Pereira was vacating his light heavyweight title. A former middleweight champ, everyone who follows fighting was already aware that “Poatan” had his sights set on heavyweight.

The only surprise in Pereira’s move up, in fact, was that he was fighting Ciryl Gane, a bout no one asked for, rather than Jon Jones.

The face of the UFC has been steadfast in denying that Jones was ever going to fight on the White House card, yet the champ himself insists he was in negotiations, and even White was forced to admit that the UFC was talking to him of late. If not to fight on the White House card, then what for? Jones had literally walked away from MMA last year only to make an about-face, and return to the drug testing pool simply for a shot at representing his country and fighting on the White House grounds.

Why would the UFC bother talking to Jones otherwise? He’d already chased a fight with Pereira, favoring the match-up over one featuring current heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall.

Jones or no Jones, the UFC’s White House announcement lacked sizzle. It was met with yawns from fans. Longtime MMA media member Ariel Helwani was kind enough to rank it a nine out of ten, high praise given the relationship he’s had with White over the years. But let’s be honest: Freedom 250 is an eight at best, and that’s under normal circumstances. With the sort of expectations associated with being the first-ever professional sporting even held on the White House grounds, it’s a seven, and even that is being generous.

MVP, meanwhile, announced Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano to considerable fanfare prior to the UFC’s White House announcement. Yes, there were critics. Rightfully so. Rousey hasn’t fought since 2016. Carano hasn’t fought since 2009. Set to air on Netflix, however, a streaming service many already have, it’s hard to really bemoan the booking too much. Yes, UFC cards are essentially “free” to subscribers of Paramount+, but that service is in far fewer homes. Still a great deal for UFC fans, zero question, but catching the White House card is an extra monthly subscription for many casual fans who might be curious about it.

Rousey-Carano? A good chunk of casual fans probably already have Netflix.

Then came the Francis Ngannou announcement. While he’s fighting former PFL star and UFC heavyweight Philipe Lins, not a bigger name as might have been hoped, Ngannou remains a huge addition to the Netflix show. He’s the lineal heavyweight champion in MMA. He remains at the top of his game. He left the UFC, essentially winning a battle with White, and tried his hand at boxing.

Ngannou might have lost, but he won so much financially (and looked so good against Tyson Fury that he arguably won that bout) that it doesn’t matter. And he’s won again here, leaving a go-nowhere situation in the PFL, who simply don’t have the roster, or funds, to schedule him consistently, for another lucrative payday.

The Netflix Rousey vs. Carano kick-off press conference last week was a huge newsmaker. Rousey went on the offensive, telling fans to expect change. Taking on the UFC head on. This was a former promotional darling, a company woman through and through. And while she has paid her respects to White, she has also questioned how in control of the promotion he truly is. She’s singled out Hunter Campbell, the UFC’s Chief Business Officer and heir apparent to White. She said what many fans have been thinking: the UFC simply doesn’t book the best fights anymore. They just book cost-effective ones.

Rousey even let slip that the UFC had booked her fight with Carano, and gave her the best deal of her career, only to withdraw it after the promotion signed a new, $7.7 billion dollar broadcast deal with Paramount+. Pay-Per-View was gone as a result, and Rousey is of the belief that the company no longer wants to offer big money for big name fighters, since they can’t base pay on performance like they used to by employing Pay-Per-View points (bonus money paid to top stars based on how well a PPV sells).

Jake Paul’s MVP and Netflix have now seized the opportunity. And Diaz vs. Perry, announced earlier today, is exactly the sort of fight that should have been booked for the UFC’s White House show. When you’re promising the biggest event of all time, it can’t just be about hardcore fans. It can’t just be about rankings. Casual fans know Rousey, Diaz, and to a lesser extent Ngannou and Perry. They might know Justin Gaethje, and his particular brand of carnage. They might know Poatan. Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia? What on earth is that fight doing on what was supposed to be the biggest event ever, per Dana White’s own words?

MVP clearly knows how to generate a buzz too. While the UFC unceremoniously dumped the entire Freedom 250 card out during UFC 326, MVP and Netflix and drip-fed the media and fans three big fights: first Rousey-Carano, then Ngannou-Lins, now Diaz-Perry. Rousey, Ngannou, and Diaz are all bigger names than anyone fighting on the White House grounds this June. Are they relevant to their respective divisions these days? No, with the exception of Ngannou.

And that won’t matter one bit at the end of the day. These sorts of cards aren’t about divisional relevance.

The UFC used to know that. That’s why they booked Brock Lesnar to return at UFC 200. “Can you hear me now?!?” still resonates among fight fans. It doesn’t matter that Lesnar’s win against Mark Hunt was later overturned to a No Contest. It doesn’t matter that Lesnar’s failed drug test spiraled into a lawsuit between Hunt and the UFC. That return announcement is still one of the biggest surprises that UFC has ever pulled off (and no, Helwani breaking the news a little early didn’t ruin it for anyone).

The promotion used to understand how to hype fans up for an event like this. UFC 100, UFC 200, the Noche UFC card at The Sphere. As much as the UFC brass often shows disdain towards the theatrical, they’ve pulled it off when need be. Yet these days, they send Fight Night events like Emmett vs. Vallejos (which vastly exceeded expectations) to the newly re-branded Meta Apex to die.

This isn’t meant to just drag the UFC. They have the deepest talent pool, and the most relevant fights nine times out of ten. It’s indisputable, however, that the White House card has been a letdown in terms of expectations versus reality. And watching MVP beat them so soundly at their own game may just be a sign of Rousey’s promise of change being on the horizon.

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With apologies to Philipe Lins, who was never expected to say much, having three notable names in Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano, and Francis Ngannou, all of whom can be charming and work a mic, meant there would be a multitude of storylines. And there have been.

Perhaps the biggest has been Rousey positioning the fight as the start of something bigger, perhaps the start of a charge against MMA’s entrenched, dominant force, the UFC.

On Tuesday, she told media outlets including Cageside Press that her fight with Carano appearing on the world’s leading streaming service, Netflix, “was always the ultimate goal.”

“They’re the biggest player out there, the most premium channel or outlet that we could be on. And that’s what I think that this fight really deserves. And I think that the UFC made a huge mistake going with Paramount and just taking the biggest check, because they left the biggest streamer in the world with a need that they want filled, and someone else is going to fill it.”

The UFC signed a $7.7 billion dollar broadcast deal with Paramount Skydance to have all their content, including numbered events, appear on Paramount+. In the process, Pay-Per-View dollars were eliminated; the fight with Rousey and Carano, once destined from Rousey’s old fighting home, was axed as a result.

In short, the UFC didn’t want to pay up. Just as they reportedly didn’t want to pay Jon Jones, and, apparently, Conor McGregor.

“The UFC just feels like they’re too big to fail, and it doesn’t matter. Then they have this fight of me and Gina, the two biggest names in the sport when it comes to international name recognition— I think a lot of people in MMA don’t realize how few people outside of MMA know who anyone in it is.”

Rousey added that she’s had plenty of fans mention that they haven’t watched fighting since she wrapped up her career, calling it “common.”

“Because of their short-term greed of trying to hog as much of that Paramount check for the shareholders as possible, they let the biggest fight in recent history, or maybe in the history of the sport go to the biggest streamer, that they left wide open for somebody else to take. And now this is going to be the most viewed MMA fight of all time easily. And they just let it go why? They think they’re the only gig in town. And somebody’s going to come and fill that void that they’re leaving, and MVP is ready to be there and to innovate and to take the risk, and honestly it’s not much of a risk.”

Rousey, who throughout Tuesday’s press conference suggested that Dana White is no longer entirely in charge of the MMA juggernaut, went on to say that she hopes the UFC “sees that the writing is on the wall.”

“They’re going to lose the market share of the sport if they don’t start prioritizing the fighters, and not just trying to get away with putting up fights that are basically as cheap as possible. Because that’s how they keep most of that upfront check, right? They don’t have any incentive to put on the best fights possible. They’re not doing Pay-per-View anymore. The way that they keep the most of that 7.7 billion dollars is to spend as little as possible. There’s no incentive for them to have the biggest names and the best fights.”

Perhaps hinting at more to come, Rousey added that “change is coming, and I’m very happy to be at the forefront of it.”

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The fight, promoted by Jake Paul’s MVP, took many by surprise, despite rumors of it dating back over a year. Initially, it had been lined up for the UFC, until they jumped to Paramount+. Then, PPV dollars were gone, and the promotion didn’t want to give guaranteed money to a couple of stars of yesteryear.

During Tuesday’s Rousey vs. Carano press conference, both headliners spoke with Cageside Press about the respect shared between them. For Rousey, it’s as simple as the fact that without Carano, she wouldn’t have known what MMA was.

“I would not have known that women’s MMA existed if it wasn’t for her. I was training for the 08 Olympics when I saw her fight Julie Kedzie, and saw the awe and admiration and respect that she commanded from everybody in the room. She stole the show,” recalled Rousey. “And I was so envious of her. I saw her fight and I was like ‘I can totally kick her ass,’ but I was also so in awe and enthralled with her. She planted that seed in my mind, when I was training for the Olympics, I would try to listen to music and think about ‘ooh I’m going to win the Olympics,’ and my Olympic matches and all of this and doing Judo, and it just kept creeping into my mind.”

“I would think of winning MMA, and winning MMA matches. She planted that seed. My mom has a saying, that you can’t unthink a thought. It’s because of her. She changed my whole life, and she already was changing the world of sports and went and moved on to bigger and better things for herself, and I was able to change the world because of her.”

Carano, meanwhile, referenced a years-old interview she had given, in which she predicted the girls she was inspiring in her heyday would in turn inspire her.

“The women that I’m inspiring now are going to re-inspire me later, and I didn’t know how prophetic those words would be. And it has come full circle to exactly that,” stated Carano, who had an undefeated career until the ran into Cris Cyborg in what turned out to be Carano’s final fight. “Ronda— they’ve tried to get me to come out of retirement. There’s nobody I would have come out for except for her. And, when we were having kind of a tough time getting it done, because I have walked away before, Ronda got on the phone with me and she’s like ‘okay, let’s sit down and talk about it.'”

“I call her little wolf, because she’s wagging her tail and she’s charming, but at the same time, she wants to rip my arm off and shove it up my ass,” Carano later added with a laugh, realizing just a moment too late that those would no doubt be the words that would go viral.

“She’s completely inspired me. I didn’t realize how badly I needed it. I don’t care about the time off. I’ve had a lot of extreme things happen. I used to get really for stuff like this, and I feel freakin’ great right now,” Carano continued. “It’s got good energy for this fight, and I agree with Ronda, this is the biggest fight going on right now. And it’s a complete honor.”

Ronda Rousey faces Gina Carano under the MVP banner on Netflix on May 16, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA at the Intuit Dome.

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At a kick-off press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, both fighters were on hand to explain how the fight, set for the Intuit Dome in L.A. in May, came together.

Gina Carano, for one, confirmed that Rousey had reached out about the fight, initiating the process after seeing the fighter-turned-actor struggling. The overture came via UFC CEO and President Dana White, she revealed.

“Dana gave me a call, he said ‘Ronda’s pregnant,’ I think she was nine months pregnant,” Carano recalled, “and ‘she wants to fight, and the only one she wants to fight is you.'”

“At that time, I was extremely sick in my body, had a couple of tough, rough years like I think a lot of us did have. And at that time I was like ‘you know what? Absolutely.’ It just became more and more real as 2025 went on. It’s pretty incredible and surreal to be here today.”

“It’s healing, it’s exciting, it’s everything I could have hoped for. I didn’t know I needed this so bad,” Carano finished. While she might be best known these days for her work on Disney’s The Mandalorian, Carano was a women’s fighting pioneer, though she has not competed since a loss to Cris Cyborg in 2009.

Even when Rousey left pro wrestling’s WWE, fighting professionally again was not the plan for the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion and Hall of Fame member. She’d retired from the UFC in 2016.

“I never thought I would come back. It didn’t cross my mind at all. I think it kind of started with my now coach Ricky [Lundell], who was originally my mortal enemy – he was coaching against me on The Ultimate Fighter – he was also coaching my husband Travis Browne, he convinced me to give him a chance and we became friends over the years. He asked me to help him get his black belt in judo,” stated Rousey.

“I had put a lot of walls around me when it came to martial arts and everything like that. I was forced to retire over some neurological issues that I didn’t really have any clarity about. It hurt to be around it.”

Rousey accepted the coaching role, however, which in turn “made me fall in love with marital arts again. It reminded me of the joy that it gave me from the very beginning, and why I love it so much. I really am a master of it, and I understand it so deeply, and to be able to teach it to someone that would understand it on that level, it reminded me why I loved it again.”

Rousey was soon three months pregnant, doing suplexes in her own garage. Months later, she decided to reach out to Carano. “It’s been such a journey to get here, so many obstacles, and so many people have tried to get in between us and insert their own agenda. We went from barely knowing each other and respecting each other to going ‘you know what? We’re going to fight to fight each other. I told her ‘I will train you to fight me if I have to.’ Luckily I didn’t have to do that.”

Rousey then touched on what the fight has become since it was announced. Alongside the UFC’s Freedom 250 announcement, MVP’s first foray into MMA has become about challenging the behemoth that is the UFC.

“I thought it was just about me and finding my love for the sport, and just about her [Carano] getting back to finding that fire and that light in her eyes that we all fell in love with. But it’s become much more than that,” admitted Rousey. “Now it’s become about changing the entire landscape of the sport, and challenging the monolith that the UFC has become.”

“Of course, I just wanted to do something fun and I ended up having to change the world.”

Originally, the fight was going to come under the UFC banner. That was Ronda Rousey’s first choice. “I have such love and respect for Dana that I wanted to bring this to him first,” she said on Tuesday, telling him “I would rather fight for you than fight for me, just make it make sense for me.”

To his credit, White did. An offer was tended, Rousey accepted. The deal was originally going to be the final fight under the UFC’s PPV model, in December 2025, before UFC broadcasts shifted to Paramount+. “It was the best PPV structure ever, and I was so grateful.” Then Carano announced she needed more time to get into fight shape. “I think that was fate, it was meant to be, it was meant to push us to the other side. Once they moved into the streaming model, it’s just not about putting on the best fights anymore. Dana is legally beholden to the shareholders, to maximize shareholder value.”

“Unfortunately now that they’ve taken the reigns of the company away from him, it’s barely recognizable now. And they needed to be saved from themselves. Luckily, I’m here to be their hero.”

MVP isn’t skipping on the May 16 Netflix card, having signed Francis Ngannou, MMA’s lineal heavyweight champion, as a co-headliner. He takes on former PFL heavyweight champ Philipe Lins.

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On Monday, in an MVP Uncut video promoting her upcoming fight against Gina Carano on Netflix, Rousey made light of the UFC’s current legal situation. Since 2014, the UFC has been battling a string of class action lawsuits, starting with Le vs. Zuffa, which was settled to the tune of $375 million U.S. in 2024, with payouts distributed last year.

Lawsuits launched by Kajan Johnson, covering a different class period, and Misha Cirkonov, who is challenging the promotion’s use of contracts to restrict fighters from participating in class action lawsuits, are still ongoing.

“We’re helping them [UFC], because they’re suffering from a lack of competition. They can’t just make a class-action lawsuit every couple years the cost of doing business. I’m really trying to help Dana [White] out,” Rousey said with a laugh, speaking on camera to MVP’s Nakisa Bidarian. “If anyone has been groomed to be his apprentice, it’s been me. I think I’d be the most favorite adversary he’s ever had.”

The comments may have been made in jest, but there’s some truth behind them. Depending on how the remaining lawsuits play out, there’s a chance that the UFC will have paid out close to, if not over, $800 million to over a billion dollars due to legal action, in a period of years.

With their new seven-year, $7.7 billion dollar broadcast deal with Paramount+, the UFC/Zuffa and parent company TKO Group aren’t hurting for cash, but the amount remains significant.

On Monday, in a tweet promoting her own card, which has been joined by lineal heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, Rousey finished off by saying “P.S [UFC]’s White House card sucks.”

Another shot fired.

Fans have been divided on the “Freedom 250” event at the White House, with many seeing Saturday’s announcement of the card by the promotion as underwhelming, with all of the company’s top stars including Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, and Jorge Masvidal absent.

Rousey, who last fought in a loss to Amanda Nunes in 2016, faces Carano, retired since 2009, on May 16, 2026 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA.

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The bout comes as something of a surprise if only because, while it had long been rumored, most had expected it to take place under the UFC banner.

Rousey has now revealed that UFC CEO and President Dana White was interested in the fight and did make her an offer, only for timing and a change in the promotion’s broadcast deal to force a change in plans.

Speaking to Jim Rome, Rouse revealed that the deal White offered her would have seen her “make more per PPV buy than anybody in history,” adding that if she hit or surpassed her historic numbers in terms of buyrate, “I would have made as much as I did in my entire career.”

PPV dollars, where fighters earn a bonus per Pay-Per-View sale, were a big factor for stars like Brock Lesnar, Georges St-Pierre, Conor McGregor, and Rousey, the big four of the UFC’s heyday.

With Gina Carano coming out of pregnancy, however, the Rousey vs. Carano fight date pushed past the start of the UFC’s Paramount+ deal, meaning PPV buys were gone. All events now air on the streaming service free of any additional charge past the monthly subscription fee. And according to Rousey, the promotion simply didn’t want to offer her a set fee that would make up for the loss of Pay-Per-View sales and the associated bonus.

“They didn’t want to set a precedent of giving me the guaranteed money that I deserved, because once I raise that tide it lifts all the boats,” stated Rousey. “They just made a 7.7 billion dollar deal at Paramount. It’s in their best interest actually not to put on the best fights possible but to spend as little money as possible so they can keep it.”

This is Rousey’s opinion, of course, but it very much has a ring of truth to it. “They’re legally, Dana’s not legally obligated to maximize shareholder value. It’s not just about proving the concept of fighting and putting on the best fights possible and proving that this is a sport to be taken seriously,” she continued.

“Now that they’ve sold the company, it’s kind of out of Dana’s hands unfortunately. And now it’s falling onto Hunter Campbell and UFC Corp., where they don’t care about putting on the best fights possible, they care about putting on the most cost-effective fights possible.”

The UFC has always been a tough negotiator, and after settling one class action lawsuit over fighter pay, is still facing two others. If Rousey’s comments are taken at face value, it seems little has changed in the promotion’s business model, despite the current financial windfall. The promotion sails to new heights, while fighters struggle to stay above water.

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The long-speculated showdown pairs two of the sport’s most recognizable pioneers in a bout that carries both competitive intrigue and historic weight, marking a rare cross-chapter meeting between foundational stars of women’s MMA.

MVP Promotions announced the matchup on Tuesday.

“Been waiting so long to announce this: Me and Gina Carano are gonna throw down in the biggest super fight in women’s combat sport history,” Rousey said in the press release.

“And we’re partnering with the fighter-first promotion MVP as well as the biggest and baddest streamer on the planet Netflix. This is for all MMA fans past, present and future. More to come… much more”

Rousey (12-2) has not competed in an MMA bout since 2016, when she fell short in her bid to reclaim the UFC bantamweight title against Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. She later transitioned to a run in WWE before stepping away from the spotlight, at least until this latest announcement.

Carano (7-1) has been out of competition even longer, last stepping into the cage in 2009 when she suffered a loss to Cris Cyborg under the Strikeforce banner. A planned return in 2011 never materialized after she was not medically cleared to compete, effectively closing the chapter on her fighting career, until now.

“Ronda came to me and said there is only one person she would make a comeback for and it has been her dream to make this fight happen between us,” Carano said in the press release.

“She thanked me for opening up doors for her in her career and was respectful in asking for this fight to happen. This is an honor. I believe I will walk out of this fight with the win and I anticipate it will not come easy, which I welcome. This is as much for Ronda and me as it is for the fans and mixed martial arts community. What a time to be alive.”

The bout is set to take place at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, CA on May 16.

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