Joe Rogan can kind of see where Ronda Rousey is coming from with her war of words against the UFC – maybe.
In the immediate aftermath of her highly anticipated fight against Gina Carano being announced last month, Rousey said one of the key storylines in the buildup would be UFC vs. Most Valuable Promotions – which is promoting the May 16 event that’ll be live-streamed on Netflix – and that she was ready “to go real hard in the f*cking trenches” to win that battle.
That certainly appeared to be the case during the first Rousey vs. Carano press conference in Los Angeles, where Rousey put the UFC on blast for its lack of fighter pay, especially after securing a 7-year, $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount that kicked off in January.
“It used to be that UFC was the best place you could come in combat sports to make a living and be paid fairly,” Rousey told reporters. “It’s now one of the worst places to go. It’s why so many of their top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere. It’s why their champions, like Valentina (Shevchenko), are selling pictures of their titties on OnlyFans. A lot of them at the ground level can’t even support their families. They’re living poverty level fighting full time.
“This company just got $7.7 billion. There’s no reason that they can’t afford to pay their athletes at least a living wage and not even that, to at least be able to match what these athletes are making in other sports.”
Speaking with Dustin Poirier on the latest episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan expressed, at least, an understanding of Rousey’s message.
“She had this big, long speech about the UFC (partnering with Paramount) for $7 billion, and these fighters aren’t making enough money – look, she made some good points,” Rogan said. “The most important thing is she gets the conversation out there, and it puts pressure on the UFC to pay people more. If Netflix can become successful at MMA, if they can become successful at putting cards together and pulling fighters away – like, right now they’re doing a one-off. It’s crazy money, but if anybody’s got that kind of money, it’s Netflix. They throw around a lot of ridiculous money. They make so much money. So they can kind of do that.
“The question is, are they going to do that more than once? If they do that more than once, then what happens is it’s all about the name of the fighters just like in boxing. Nobody cares if it’s Golden Boy, Bob Arum (promoting events). Nobody cares about that. What they care about is who’s fighting who?”
Will Netflix listen to Ronda Rousey?
Rogan, who’s been calling fights for the UFC since 2002, isn’t so sure any long-term significant changes will come of the Rousey vs. Carano event, but he acknowledges the significance of someone like Rousey getting the conversation going – and the potential for Netflix to listen.
“There’s a lot of people like, ‘Ronda, how could she turn her back on the UFC and talk sh*t like that?’ If what she’s saying doesn’t make any sense, she can’t say it. Right?” Rogan said. “If what she’s saying makes sense, then you have to go, ‘She’s got a point. They sold (their media rights to Paramount) for $7 billion or whatever it is.’ … That makes sense. She’s making sense. If she’s saying this and Netflix listens and if someone comes along, and they’re a shrewd businessman, they go looking (and see) there’s a lot of (UFC fighters) whose contracts are coming up. When these people’s contracts are coming up, let’s get into negotiations.
“All of a sudden some people start drifting over. So if you get, like, an Islam Makhachev to start leaving and fight at Netflix, and then they can talk four or five other big contenders (into leaving the UFC) – look, it’s a big ask.”
The Rousey vs. Carano event is set for May 16 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. It’s been bolstered by Francis Ngannou’s MMA return vs. Philipe Lins, as well as the MMA returns of Nate Diaz and Mike Perry, who will fight each other in a welterweight clash.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Joe Rogan: Ronda Rousey’s UFC fighter pay rant ‘made some good points’
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