Ronda Rousey Talks Mike Tyson's Influence on Carano Fight, Dana White, UFC, WWE & AEW in New Video

MMA legend Ronda Rousey is set to make her long-awaited comeback against fellow pioneer Gina Carano on Saturday in the first-ever MMA event streamed live on Netflix.

Before her first fight since 2016, Rousey spoke to Matt Welty of Complex and revealed that she was inspired to make her comeback after watching Mike Tyson face Jake Paul in November 2024.

"There were a lot of things that kind of led up to me being primed for this. I think a big thing was Mike Tyson making his comeback at nearly 60 and being the most-viewed combat sports event of all time," Rousey said around the 1:00 mark. "So that put it in my mind that that wasn't a nostalgia fest, that was people [missing] something that he brought."

Rousey had long been interested in facing Carano, who hasn't fought professionally since 2009. She initially contacted UFC president Dana White to put the fight together, but she explained that things didn't work out, which led to her partnering with Netflix and Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions.

"I made the first phone call to Dana to say, 'Would you be interested in this fight?' He was all about it, but things at the UFC had changed, and me and Gina are free agents," Rousey said. "So, he gave me his blessing to go and self-promote."

Rousey revealed that the UFC offered her "a great deal" for its last pay-per-view event this past December before the streaming deal with Paramount+ began this year. She went on to assert that UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell "actively tried to sabotage this fight," said that Carano "wasn't serious," and was "basically s---ting on us and the marketability of our fight." She added that she feels the executives at the UFC "don't want that star power anymore, they want the brand to be the star."

"That's why when you have big stars like Nate Diaz and Francis Ngannou knowing their worth and demanding more, they're telling them to go kick rocks instead of paying them what they're worth, because they think that they're too big to fail and there's nowhere else that they could go," Rousey said. "They don't want anyone to eclipse the company ever again, and I think that's a huge mistake."

Rousey hasn't held back her disdain for the current state of the UFC while promoting her fight against Carano. She even used an appearance in AEW to take a shot at the TKO Group, which owns the UFC and WWE.

"It didn't hurt to be a little catty with it," she said with a laugh around the 13:12 mark. "... One thing I really love about AEW is that it's not PG like WWE, so I can walk in there and flip everybody off and walk out and laugh with my best friend and have a great time. I didn't feel as edited as before."

Rousey was also asked about her time in WWE, and she revealed that she wasn't pleased with how some of the structure was forced upon her.

"I felt like I was doing somebody else's impression of myself. You can tell when I was allowed to write my own promos and when I wasn't," she said. "I learned a lot from it and I really enjoyed my time in the ring. I didn't really enjoy being under the death throes of Vince McMahon's reign, but there were a lot of great experiences in there."

Rousey added that her second run in WWE was "more difficult" toward the end of McMahon's tenure with the company, and she was happy to see Triple H take over as the head of creative.

"I loved being out there in the ring and doing it, but the process was just such a clusterf--k s--t show that it was so much more anxiety than it was worth," she said. "I just look back at it, and I just remember the anxiety of not knowing what was going on and then at the last minute, maybe we'd be able to pull it out of our ass and have a good night, and maybe not. I was definitely team Triple H to get up to take it over. I've heard it's been much better since he's taken things over, but unfortunately, I didn't get to experience it."