Former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has hit out at Dana White’s treatment of fighters, branding the promotion the “worst place to make money in combat sports” in a scathing rant.
Despite becoming the first-ever women’s bantamweight champion in 2012 and defending the crown six times, Rousey is not the biggest fan of her former employer.
The 39-year-old is set to return to the octagon against Gina Carano on 16 May at an event promoted by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.
The bout, which will take place at the Intuit Dome in California, will be broadcast on Netflix, almost a decade on from Rousey’s retirement from MMA after her defeat to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207.
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Rousey, who also featured in WWE across two spells between 2018 and 2023, has been vocal about her health struggles, which led to her initial retirement in 2016.
In 2025, she finally admitted that she retired from MMA after suffering “concussions and neurological injuries”, which she had hidden for several years.
Rousey has never been one to mince her words, even speaking out against notable names in the MMA community, such as Joe Rogan, in recent years.
In a YouTube video posted to her official channel on Friday (3 April), the 39-year-old took aim at the UFC, suggesting the promotion was “suffering from a lack of competition” while also claiming the company has “become too comfortable”.
“[They’re] just making fighters offers where they go, ‘Take it or leave it, what else are you going to do?’” she said.
“It used to be that UFC was the best way to make money in combat sports. Now it’s becoming the worst place to make money in combat sports. It used to be anti-establishment, and now it’s become the establishment. And I’ve always been an ‘anti’ kind of b****. [Laughs]
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been a company woman and was very grateful while I was there, but I feel like since they’ve taken the reins away from Dana, they’ve really lost their way. They think that they’re too big to fail and that they can just disappoint the fans over and over. They don’t care how many casual fans they lose, because they’ve got their streaming, and ‘F*** you, we got ours.’
“I think they need to be reminded of the precariousness of their situation, and they need to start appreciating the fighters that give everything they do any value at all. I think that they’ve forgotten that, and I’m coming to remind them.”
Topics: Ronda Rousey, UFC, Dana White, MMA, Jake Paul
Luke Davies