Ronda Rousey Acutely Aware of Her Impact on Women's Sports Ahead of MMA Return (Exclusive)

Ronda Rousey will make her return to MMA on Saturday night in a highly anticipated bout against Gina Carano on Netflix. It's the first MMA show to air on Netflix and one that Rousey had a major hand in planning.

"The whole thing was originally my idea," Rousey told The Takedown on SI. "I made the first phone call (and) they've treated me as a partner since day one."

Rousey says that partnership continued throughout the process, with her having the power of suggestion. She didn't get everything she wanted, but she had a wish list.

RONDA ROUSEY vs. GINA CARANO 😮‍💨

Buckle up for first-ever MMA event on Netflix 🔥 #RouseyCarano
Saturday, May 16
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— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) April 30, 2026

"Having Mauro back, or having Bert back, and different matchups on the card. Ngannou and Rico was originally my idea. Obviously, things have to evolve with the situation, but by and large, this is my dream card and my dream opponent. I get overridden sometimes, but I got to be in the conversation at least."

Ahead of her showdown with Carano on Saturday night, Rousey is confident, ready, and supremely aware of the impact she's made on women's sports across the board.

"I'm very aware that women are headlining WWE because of me," Rousey said. "That women are headlining and making big paydays in boxing because of me. In bare-knuckle boxing, in full-contact karate, in everything that's a contact sport. I'm very, very proud of seeing all the success the women are having, because I was able to prove their commercial viability, and everyone's trying to recapture that lightning in a bottle.

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano | IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

"I'm so happy to see it. I don't think I'll ever be able to fully understand the scope of those ripple effects — nor anybody else — but that's not why you do it. I'm very, very proud, and it's very cool to see. I'm glad it's got to the point that things are so different that people forget how it used to be. I'm not mad at that. I'm proud."

Rousey takes her seat on the main event throne once again this weekend, and insists that she hasn't forgotten how to fight.

"I'm definitely me," Rousey said. "The sport has changed and I've got to learn and be informed by all those changes. It's done nothing but make me more effective than I've ever been... I didn't forget how to f---ing fight."

Ronda Rousey is confident about her return to MMA

It's been nearly a decade since Rousey's last MMA fight, where she lost to Amanda Nunes by knockout less than a minute into the opening round at UFC 207. She's heard people talking about her lengthy layoff incessantly, but she claims to be much better now that she was then.

"The core tenets and the concepts are what really resonate and stay. All the peripheral little things you don't need get kind of lost and dumped. I'm definitely better than I've ever been. I have an entirely new team behind me, and we're all close to the same age, so it's always felt like a partnership and a collaboration from the very beginning. It's the way it always should have been. I'm glad I finally got to end on the right note."

While she feels that she's a better fighter now, Rousey didn't ignore the elephant in the room of the major change in her personal life as she was preparing for her fight this Saturday. She's a Mom now, which Rousey says has only strengthen her as a fighter and a promoter.

"I think being a mom actually helps, which is something I never would have understood when I was younger," Rousey said. "It takes a lot of the anxiety and pressure off of me. I always felt like I needed to make things as hard as possible on myself to bring out the best in me. But actually, I feel like I have so much more energy, and I'm so much happier. It's not at all what I would have imagined."

Did Ronda Rousey really like wrestling in the WWE?

Rousey has a decorated career as an MMA fighter and is an olympic medalist in judo. She's also a multi-time world champion in the WWE. Like MMA, she helped pave the way for women in pro wrestling. Rousey hasn't had raving reviews about her time in WWE, so did she actually like being a wrestler? I had to ask.

"Yeah, I had a great time," Rousey said while smiling. "I love playing a real heel. Not trying to be the cool-guy heel, or trying to be like, 'oh, this is just my character.' Because I feel like that's what kayfabe is now: people don't know the difference between the show and the reality, and I wanted to play that up as much as possible. I am me regardless of whether I'm in the ring or not.

"The time I was in the ring with the girls, I was having the time of my life. Dealing with Vince McMahon was a f---ing shit show. I can't pretend otherwise. But being in the ring and actually doing it with those women, was an incredible experience."

What was the exact issue with McMahon? Oh, just the same thing the WWE audience has heard about the former WWE boss for decades.

"Not knowing what was going to happen until the very last minute," Rousey said. "You're literally going out there and you have no time to practice what you're going to do. You just talked about it in the hallway. I felt like it was a huge missed opportunity."

"That's why you get a lot of these storylines that don't make sense, that are disjointed, that have no long-term booking in mind. It was infuriating, because we had the opportunity to make an exceptional product, and they were stuck in ways of doing things that made it so much more mediocre than it had the potential to be. That was really frustrating."

Rousey makes her return to MMA on Saturday night in the first-ever MMA event on Netflix. Because of the size of the Netflix platform, it's likely to be the most watched MMA event in history. Rousey faces Gina Carano in the main event.

Other announced fights for the show include Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry and Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins.

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