During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with guest Dustin Poirier, Rogan weighed in on Ronda Rousey’s comeback matchup against Gina Carano, set to take place on Netflix.
The match came up mid-conversation when Poirier shared news that had broken that morning: a One FC match between Nate Diaz and Mike Perry had been added as the third bout on the Netflix card. Rogan appeared caught off guard.
“Oh, wow. Interesting. That’s very interesting. That’s very interesting. That’s a good match,” he said.
As the two men continued to discuss the Netflix event and its growing lineup, Rogan placed the Rousey vs. Carano matchup alongside bouts featuring Francis Ngannou and Nate Diaz.
“You have Ronda and Gina. Okay. Now, you have three interesting matches,” he said.
Rousey had been making news not just for her return to competition but for public comments she made about competitor pay. Rogan addressed those remarks directly.
“Ronda Rousey, she’s promoting the Netflix match and she had this big long speech about the UFC selling for $7 billion. These athletes aren’t making enough money. And you know, look, she made some good points and the most important thing is that she gets the conversation out there and it puts pressure on the UFC to pay people more,” he said.
Rogan then turned his attention to the financial scale of the Netflix card itself, suggesting everyone on the bill was being compensated well beyond what traditional MMA events typically offer.
Poirier stated: “You got Ronda, Francis, Nate, these everybody’s getting crazy money. The payroll is going to be nuts.”
Rogan sees Netflix’s move into MMA as something that could reshape the sport. “If Netflix can become successful at MMA, if they can become successful putting cards together and pulling athletes away, like right now they’re doing a one-off, right? It’s a one-off and it’s kind of a gimmicky thing.”
He continued: “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,” he said.
He also praised the platform’s reach, noting that free access on Netflix could mean the event draws more viewers than almost any combat sports event in history.
“And it’s on Netflix, so it’s going to be free. But even if Nate and Mike Perry was the head of the headliner, I would have bought that pay-per-view,” Rogan said.
