Joe Rogan has voiced his support for Ronda Rousey’s recent criticisms of the UFC, particularly regarding their fighter compensation and treatment. Rousey’s strong opinions on the lack of respect shown to athletes through their pay structure have resonated with the popular podcast host.
While the UFC has long stood as the pinnacle of mixed martial arts, Rogan suggests its dominance could be challenged if Netflix seriously commits to the sport.
Ahead of her May 16 bout against Gina Carano—Netflix’s inaugural MMA event—Rousey openly criticized her former employer, the UFC, advocating for improved fighter pay amidst ongoing controversies. Rogan praised her arguments, emphasizing that her comments ignite crucial discussions and apply pressure on the UFC to enhance athlete compensation.
“Ronda Rousey, she’s promoting the Netflix fight,” Rogan stated. “She delivered this lengthy speech about the UFC selling for $7 billion and how these fighters aren’t earning enough money. And you know, look, she made some valid 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.”
Rogan pondered the possibility of Netflix becoming a true competitor in the MMA landscape. “If Netflix can become successful at MMA, if they can become successful putting cards together and pulling fighters away. Like, right now they’re doing a one-off, right? It’s a one-off and it’s kind of a gimmicky thing… It’s gonna be crazy,” he remarked.
“But, if anyone has that kind of money, it’s Netflix. They spend a lot of incredible 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?”
Ronda Rousey’s return to the cage to face Gina Carano is a highly anticipated event, a fight teased for over a decade. While the main event alone is substantial, the Netflix card will also feature other prominent stars.
Francis Ngannou is slated to fight Philipe Lins, and Nate Diaz will take on Mike Perry. With these significant additions, Joe Rogan now views Netflix as a potential major contender in the MMA space, provided they can consistently attract more well-known martial artists.
“So if they do that more than once, then what happens is it’s all about the names of the fighters, just like boxing,” Rogan explained. “In boxing, no one cares if it’s Golden Boy or Bob Arum. Nobody cares about that. What they care about is who’s fighting who… So, if Netflix can kind of do the boxing thing on Netflix with big-name stars, they could be a major player, and that will elevate everybody’s pay scale.”
Addressing potential critics of Rousey, Rogan added, “There’s a lot of people like, ‘Oh, 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? So, if what she’s saying makes sense, then you have to go; she’s got a point. Yeah. She’s got a point. She’s got a point.”
He continued, “They sold it for seven billion dollars, or whatever it is. They got this seven-billion-dollar deal, whatever the f***ing deal was with Paramount. Not even selling it, sold rights to it. That makes sense. She’s making sense. So if she’s saying this and Netflix listens, and if someone comes along and they’re a shrewd businessman, they go, ‘Look, there’s a lot of people, their contracts are coming up, and when these people’s contracts are coming up, let’s get into negotiations.’ Then all of a sudden, some people start drifting over.”
Rogan concluded by highlighting the disruptive potential: “If you get like an Islam Makhachev who starts leaving and they leave and go fight in Netflix, and then they can talk four or five top major contenders into doing [it]… You’re gonna need something like Netflix, and Netflix can kind of pull it off because Netflix has a massive promotional machine, but they need big names.”
