This past weekend, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey returned to mixed martial arts for the first time in a decade to square off with Gina Carano, who had a brief, but very influential MMA career before she hung up her gloves to pursue acting more than 17 years ago. When the fight was originally announced a few months ago, the argument could’ve been made that while the bout was a collision of two top stars from two different eras of women’s MMA, the other side of the coin was that both of them had been gone from the sport for such an extended period of time that it was possible that their collective drawing power had faded. The Intuit Dome in Inglewood California was home turf for “Rowdy Ronda,” and despite the peaks and valleys of her professional career, both inside and outside of the sport, the event was reported to be a “near sell-out” of the 18,000-seat building by various media outlets.
Ironically, these contest was initially pitched to the Ultimate Fighting Championship because of Ronda’s longtime friendship with UFC boss, Dana White, but when an agreement couldn’t be reached, the fight was not only taken to Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Player organization, but it served as the launch of the promotional group’s MMA project. We’ve already seen that MVP Promotions promoted Paul’s boxing matches, as well as other cards on Netflix, but it’s very possible that if the UFC didn’t decline to host this Rousey/Carano fight that we wouldn’t have seen the first MMA event on the streaming platform.
As I wrote when the bout was officially announced, the fight business is still the entertainment business. On paper it might’ve seemed outlandish that someone like Carano, who only fought for three years before she retired after her first loss, could be considered a drawing card after being away from the cage for 17 years. There’s no doubt that Ronda was the “A-side” of the fight, as she accomplished exponentially more in her MMA career, both as a star and as a competitor, than Carano did. That being said, if it sells tickets then there’s business to be done.
You have to wonder how much of this fight was business? But, more on that later.
There have been comparisons between pro wrestling and mixed martial arts since the Zuffa days of the UFC when the Fertita brothers bought the organization and began to use many pro wrestling tactics to promote their cards. This MVP MMA event was no different since the matchmaker or “booking” of the card was done in a very deliberate fashion to attempt to ensure match-ups that would provide action that was tailored to a Netflix audience.
Four of the five fights on the main card were finished in the first round, and the other fight ended after the second round via doctor stoppage. None of the main card bouts went to the score cards so the night was all action.
There were a few takeaways from MVP MMA’s inaugural event.
The opening bout saw former UFC Heavyweight champion, Junior Dos Santos suffer another brutal knockout defeat, and considering that the 42-year-old was knocked out more than a half a dozen times in his MMA career, with most of those stoppages in devastating fashion, it would be wise for him to retire. Robelis Despaigne had a pro record of 5-2 going into the contest, with all of his wins via KO in the first round. The Cuban fight had a cup of coffee in the UFC in 2024, as he garnered a record of 1-2 before the pair of defeats led to his release from the company. Clearly, this guy was known to be able to knockout opponents based on the victories on his card, and Dos Santos had a history of being susceptible to being knocked out so the matchmakers knew the odds of the finish of this contest. I really hope Dos Santos hangs up his gloves to avoid a Chuck Liddel or Ken Shamrock situation.
Salahdine Parnasse beat Ken Cross via TKO in the first round. Cross was a virtual unknown that was brought in to be a tomato can. Sure, it was a legitimate fight, but Parnasse was the more experienced fighter that competed against better competition. Cross left himself open to take punches too often, and the disparity between their skill sets was obvious early in the fight. The Frenchman landed a digging body shot that sent Cross to the canvas before the referee rescued him to stop the fight. In a similar fashion, Francis Ngannou, who was stripped of the UFC Heavyweight title after a contract dispute almost three and a half years ago, was scheduled for a showcase fight against Philipe Lins. Again, it was a legitimate fight, but even with Lin garnering a 4-2 record during his stint in the UFC, and an overall record of 18-5 before this, he simply wasn’t in the same class as the former titleholder. Lins threw wild punches and got very sloppy before a counter punch from Ngannou KO’ed him. Nick Diaz vs. Mike Perry was booked to be the blood and guts segment on the card. It lived up to those expectations, as Diaz suffered multiple cuts and bled buckets during a brawl that was stopped by his corner after the second round.
It goes without saying that the main event was the biggest selling point of this show. What happened next was a reminder of just how much pro wrestling is involved in MMA. After the pyro and ballyhoo of the introductions, Ronda Rousey took Gina Carano down immediately and threw three punches, with two of them landing, but not directly. Right after that, Rousey went for her trademark arm bar, and Carano tapped out instantly. The official time was 17 seconds, but it was closer to 12 seconds of an actual fight before Carano tapped out. I hate to say this, but I honestly think that there’s an 80% chance that the bout was a work. Ronda was paid $2.2 million, and Carano was paid just over a million dollars for the fight.
Aside from the fact that it looked suspicious, evaluating the outcome might reveal more to the story.
At 44, Gina Carano isn’t going to make a full-fledged comeback to MMA. She was only a fighter for three years. She made a quick million dollars and sustained no damage. This fight put her name back in the spotlight and she doesn’t need any time to heal from an injury if another movie or television role is offered based on the publicity. On the other end of the spectrum, Ronda Rousey is 39 so she theoretically could return to the sport for a handful of fights over the next two or three years. Keep in mind, MVP’s venture into mixed martial arts had Ronda at the top of the marquee and it would certainly help them establish their brand of MMA if she was the centerpiece of those events to get enough viewers for the product to solidify it as an alternative to the UFC.
The way that Ronda finished the fight in mere seconds, very similar to the way that she won during her prime, is also questionable. In some ways, it was a way to reignite her career after the pair of vicious knockouts that sent her into retirement a decade ago and restore the image that she had as a dominate fighter.
Everything was a little too convenient, specifically of how it sets the stage going forward.
As I said, if MVP MMA wants to get off the ground on a long-term basis, they might use Ronda as a centerpiece to get more of the roster known to the audience before she completely retires from the sport. Truth be told, the UFC, while the top MMA organization in the world for more than two decades, desperately needs legitimate competition, especially with the amount of complacency that was seen across the board during the ESPN deal. In somewhat of a counter, it was announced during UFC Fight Night broadcast that was opposite MVP MMA event that Conor McGregor will return to the octagon to challenge Max Holloway at UFC 329 in July. It will be five years since we last saw him compete when he snapped his leg at the end of the first round during a fight against Dustin Poirier. The brash Irishman had a slew of legal problems during the time since he suffered the devastating injury. In November of 2024, he was sued for sexual assault and a jury awarded the case to the victim, which resulted in a judgement that saw him ordered to pay the victim a settlement, as well as covering her legal fees.
If Conor McGregor has enough star power left to move the needle remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that UFC brass decided to meet his price to be able to try to snuff out any momentum that MVP MMA might have following the debut event. I’m honestly not sure what could be next for the MVP group, as much of that will depend on what they plan to do next, both in the short-term and the long-term for the MMA league. There are also outside factors as far as who will be on the free agent market and what fights they can make agreements for in the future. Outside of the suspicious finish to the main event, if nothing else, the existence of more options in the sport will be beneficial to both the fighters and the fans.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotts
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