Ronda Rousey wants her Netflix comeback fight against Gina Carano to break the all-time MMA viewership record.
Speaking at Wednesday’s open workout ahead of Saturday’s MVP MMA 1 event at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, Rousey set a clear target for the event.
“In numbers, I just want to be able to beat the numbers for the most viewed MMA fight of all time — about 9 million. So beating 9 million will be a success for me. Blowing it out of the park will make me very happy, but that’s all I really want to get out of this. I just want to be able to convince MVP and Netflix that there’s something here, and it’s worth the investment, and this is going to be huge and that they should stay in the MMA game and not just dabble in it this one time.”
The record she is targeting is the 8.8 million viewers who watched the first UFC heavyweight title bout between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez on FOX in 2011.
Rousey framed Saturday as an audition for a larger role in building the sport on the platform.
“I have experience in this field. I feel like I’m the best person for the job and this, I guess, is my audition to be like, ‘Hey, you should have me around to do this a whole lot more often.’ So hopefully this is a huge success and this isn’t the last time I’ll be able to try and push the envelope.”
Rousey has not competed since 2016. Carano’s last fight was in 2009.