UFC legend Daniel Cormier says the organization made the right call in passing on the women’s MMA fight between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano.
Rousey vs. Carano headlined the first-ever MVP MMA card, which aired live on Netflix this past Saturday from Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The UFC first had the opportunity to promote this bout, but they passed on it after consultation between UFC president Dana White and UFC CBO Hunter Campbell, who believe the fight wouldn’t be competitive.
It turns out they were partially correct, as the fight only lasted 17 seconds, with Rousey armbarring Carano soon after the opening bell rang. But it was no doubt a massive event from a viewership perspective, with 17 million people tuning in for the main event. Attendance-wise, the event also had nearly 16,000 people in the venue to watch it go down.
Even with that in mind, at least one UFC legend says the world’s leading MMA promotion made the right call to pass on the fight.
UFC Legend Says Organization Made the Right Call Passing on Rousey vs. Carano
Speaking on his YouTube channel alongside former UFC fighter Ben Askren, Cormier — a UFC Hall of Famer, two-division champion, and current commentator for the promotion — said that he felt the UFC made the right decision opting not to promote Rousey vs. Carano.
“If I’m Hunter Campbell, who has been getting beat up in the media because he didn’t want to make this fight, I don’t know that last night did anything to say that he made the wrong decision because of the way that it ended, and that’s just me being 1,000 percent truthful,” Cormier said (via MMAjunkie.com).
“Had you had a great fight, maybe people may have questioned Hunter’s decision. But again, Hunter has made good decisions time and time again, and I believe that last night showed that he made another one by not paying a boat load of money to make that event.”
UFC Hoping to Hit Home Run With White House Card
Now that this MVP MMA event is over, the next big mixed martial arts event on the calendar is the UFC Freedom 250 card, which takes place on June 14 at the White House. The UFC has been saying for months now that this is going to be the biggest MMA event of all time, and they stacked the deck with seven awesome fights for it in an effort to generate even more interest aside from the allure of holding it at the White House.
White, Campbell, and the rest of the UFC brass will no doubt hope their mega event is going to be just as big as Rousey vs. Carano, if not bigger. It remains to be seen if that’s the case, given that their event will air on Paramount+ and not Netflix, which more people have. That being said, the White House card is still no doubt going to be a massive event, and it’s a good time right now to be a mixed martial arts fan with so much effort and energy being poured in by these fight promotions as they try to one-up each other.
UFC Legend Says Right Call Made Passing on Rousey vs. Carano