Rousey took fight to White but it didn’t work out

Ronda Rousey revealed that she had taken the idea of her upcoming fight with Gina Carano to Dana White first before ending with Netflix.

Rousey will face Gina Carano on May 16th at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California and will stream on Netflix. In an interview with ESPN, Rousey revealed that she reached out to White to gauge his interest in promoting the fight. “It didn’t exactly work out with the UFC, but it led us here today.”

Certainly the timeframe of when things were pitched may be the reason that White didn’t pick up this fight. White is trying to build Zuffa Boxing and with the new Paramount deal he likely had a lot going on. And, there is the White House card. Of course, he also recalls having to work with Rousey in the past and did not want to do it again.

But, the landing spot probably benefits Rousey and Carano. Netflix streaming has over 325 million paid subscribers while Paramount+ has 79 million paid subscribers. Obviously, if White took the fight he probably could have parlayed it to be on CBS to draw more eyes. Netflix likes the big “one off” fight events. In July 2025, a fight card headlined by Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano drew an average of nearly 6 million global views which is promising. Rousey has always been a draw for viewers and everyone seems to like the nostalgia. Think about how many people clamored to watch Mike Tyson fight Jake Paul.

With this spring fight occurring, we will see if Rousey-Carano will have more viewers than the White House card.