Ronda Rousey is back, and she has opinions about the state of MMA promotion, specifically why the sport is struggling to produce the kind of stars it once had.
At a recent press scrum ahead of her match against Gina Carano on Netflix, a reporter put the question to Rousey directly, noting that she had returned to the sport operating in full promoter mode, treating every press conference as an opportunity to sell the event.
The reporter asked why younger stars do not seem to grasp that same concept, and why there appear to be no real stars in MMA anymore. Rousey did not hold back.
“I think it’s partly from the athletes and partly from the company,” she said. “A lot of people, they don’t want to be famous. They’re like, ‘I just want to show up and compete.'”
“And they think, ‘I’m being humble because I’m not trying to be famous.’ But it’s like, you’re not trying to get fame for the sake of fame. You’re trying to get notoriety for the sake of getting people to watch your match.”
She went further, pointing to what she sees as a fundamental misunderstanding among current fighters about what their actual job is.
“I think a lot of them don’t understand that their job isn’t to win matches. It’s to get people to watch their matches.”
Rousey also touched on the role that fear and insecurity play in holding athletes back from putting themselves out there publicly.
“I think a lot of people are insecure and they don’t want to put themselves out there or look like they’re trying and failing. All through high school, I never put makeup on my face because I thought any attempt to put makeup on my face, I would look dumb because I was trying. And I think a lot of people are afraid to look dumb trying.”
Earlier in the same press session, Rousey credited her time in pro wrestling, and specifically Paul Heyman, for sharpening her promotional instincts.
“He told me, no matter what you’re saying, always bring it back around to the match. You’re always trying to sell the match and always end on the best line.”
Her remarks come at a moment when she is actively trying to prove that MMA can draw massive audiences outside of the UFC framework. She set a personal benchmark for the Netflix event, saying she wants to beat the record for the most viewed MMA match in the United States, which currently sits at around 9 million viewers.
“I just want to be able to convince MVP and Netflix that there is something here and it is worth the investment,” she said.
