Ronda Rousey has generated major headlines by criticizing aspects of UFC business and by aiming to improve MMA’s landscape. She said she is helping build a competitor to her former UFC home, with the goal of creating more competition so fighters can be compensated for their value. She also questioned whether the current holder of her former title is underpaid or overvalued. Rousey expressed confidence during negotiations about her comeback, saying she could energize the fanbase and sell a first MMA event since 2016. Her partnership with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions is presented as a disruption strategy. She also directed attention toward Kayla Harrison and is excited to face Gina Carano, a pioneer who opened doors for her.
"Rousey has expressed the differences in the business of the UFC today. She has said she is helping to build a competitor to her former home in the hopes of making the landscape of MMA better. She has said that the current holder of her former title is either underpaid or overvalued. Oh, and she is excited to face off against the pioneer who opened the doors for her: Gina Carano."
"Rousey said that when she was negotiating with the UFC for her comeback that she was confident in her ability to galvanize the fanbase and sell the first MMA event she would be competing on for the first time since 2016. She was telling the truth. At every juncture, Rousey has delivered on the microphone to make headlines that dominated the news cycle in the sport."
"Only, she has built up not the UFC but easily their biggest competition in several years. In this way, the partnership with Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions makes all the sense in the world. Paul has long built his reputation as a disruptor, and Rousey has said that she hopes building a new destination in the MMA landscape will create competition so that more fighters will be able to be compensated for the value they bring to a promotion."
"But fighting the machine is a broad battle and Rousey has put faces to her foes. Specifically, she's taken umbrage with her former Olympic teammate and roommate who has now gone on to win the same UFC belt that she once held: Kayla Harrison."
Read at Cageside Press
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