MMA Legend on Reasons Why Anticipated Return Isn’t Under UFC Banner

Ronda Rousey, in one of the more stunning announcements to happen in the MMA world thus far in 2026, will be making her return to the sport on May 16. It’s Rousey’s first appearance in MMA in close to a decade.

On Dec. 30, 2016, the final event of that year’s UFC itinerary, UFC 207, took place inside T-Mobile Arena in Enterprise, NV. That Friday night, Rousey was making her return to competition after 13 months away versus Amanda Nunes.

Although the contest was an advertised five rounds at five minutes per round, Nunes needed only less than a full minute to complete her assignment, stopping Ronda Rousey with punches inside the opening round. No one knew it at the time, but it would be the last contest that Ronda Rousey would have inside the cage, until this May.

Ronda Rousey Turns to WWE After Leaving MMA Behind

In early 2018, Rousey took on a new challenge in her professional life: Sports entertainment. At WrestleMania XXXIV in April of 2018, she appeared in her first match with WWE under the Monday Night RAW banner. With UFC CEO Dana White in attendance that evening, she worked with tag-team partner Kurt Angle to defeat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a mixed match on the pay-per-view.

From there, Rousey was on the RAW brand for a year and won the RAW Women’s Championship. A pinfall loss to then-current SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch in a winner-take-all, triple-threat match versus Charlotte Flair saw Ronda Rousey drop the RAW title, earning Lynch the nickname “Becky Two-Belts.”

After a hiatus from performing in WWE, in early 2022, Rousey returned, this time on Friday Night SmackDown, eventually winning the Blue Brand’s women’s championship twice over and the WWE Women’s Tag-Team Championship with . Upon a stint doing independent shows, Rousey mentioned that her time in sports entertainment was done for good.

Ronda Rousey Back in MMA, This Time Under MVP Banner

Earlier Tuesday, it was revealed that Ronda Rousey would be making a comeback on May 16 vs. Gina Carano (7-1 MMA,) but it will not be under the UFC promotional signature. Instead, Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions will put on its first-ever MMA card and Rousey’s fight with Carano will be the women’s featherweight main event at a maximum of five rounds at five minutes per round.

As was the case with the Dec. 19 boxing card in Miami, Netflix will carry the event live. In a Tuesday interview with ESPN, Ronda Rousey mentioned why her next fight won’t be a UFC tilt.

“I reached out to Dana and asked him if he would be interested in it,” Ronda Rousey said. “It didn’t exactly work out with the UFC but it led us to here today.”

Why Did Ronda Rousey Come Back Now?

Rousey mentioned that a fight with Carano was the one contest that eluded her, and it’s the reason why she was driven to make her upcoming return.

“There’s nothing I could really do for her,” she said, “except when I was in a similar spot when I was depressed and gave up on the world and inadvertently gave up on myself. What I needed was a goal and something to reignite my passion again. I always said that Gina is the one person I’d come back to fight for, and I thought ‘You know what? She needs this. She needs this fight.'”

Rousey came to the conclusion that she herself had to get back into competition, as well.

“The more that I thought about this, I thought ‘I need this!'”, she said. “‘I need this fight.'”

Final Thoughts

While MVP has put on a series of boxing events, the May 16 show will be the organization’s initial foray into the world of MMA. What a way for MVP to dip its toes into the MMA pool by booking Ronda Rousey, a legend in women’s MMA, for the first such main event under the MVP banner.

At the same time, however, fans have to wonder if she’s ready or not to come back after being away from the sport for nearly a decade. Rousey just turned 39 years of age earlier this month.

If she’s the same version of Ronda Rousey that defended UFC gold six times, fans could be in for a quick evening and a victory, but if not, Carano, who hasn’t fought since 2009, could have a successful night.