Ronda Rousey isn’t holding back in her criticism of Hunter Campbell, just days before she steps back into the cage.
The former UFC women’s bantamweight champion is set to fight for the first time in nearly ten years, with her bout airing live on Netflix this Saturday.
Rousey’s return will see her take on fellow trailblazer Gina Carano, headlining the first-ever MMA event broadcast on the streaming platform, organised by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.
She initially reached out to her old promotion about making a comeback, but it wasn’t long before she voiced her frustrations over how things were handled behind the scenes.
Ronda Rousey calls out UFC exec Hunter Campbell after comeback rejection
Rousey said Dana White was open to her returning to the UFC, but not everyone shared his view. UFC’s chief business officer, Hunter Campbell, didn’t support her comeback.
Since then, Rousey has been vocal about her issues with Campbell. She even accused him of trying to “sabotage” her return, a claim she repeated during a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“He was just being such a chauvinist, and he was being so dismissive, just trying to get me and Gina to value ourselves less from the get-go, and acting like this isn’t the greatest thing that’s fallen into his lap since he’s been there.”
“He was like, ‘No, you guys are just so much older, and I just don’t know how it’s gonna do.’ I was like, ‘Who the is this guy?’ First of all, I didn’t even know who he was,” she added.
Ronda Rousey accuses Hunter Campbell of using her return to shut down the featherweight division
She says that White wanted her fight with Carano to be for the UFC women’s featherweight title. Amanda Nunes retired in 2023, and the belt has been vacant since. Campbell reportedly wanted Rousey’s return as an opportunity to put an end to the division for good.
“Dana mentioned he wanted me and Gina to fight for the (featherweight) title as a way to retire the belt,” Rousey recalled. “Hunter was like, ‘Yeah, then we can get rid of that division.’ Just the way that he spoke of it, how dismissive he was and the disdain that he had for the fighters of that weight…
“Women that are heavier than 145 pounds, they can’t offer you anything? They’re worthless? They’re worth scoffing at? It just really rubbed me the wrong way, that this guy is the person that’s going to be shepherding the company that I helped build.
“This guy does not have a job because he’s good at it,” she continued. “He has a job because he is Dana and Lorenzo (Fertitta’s) lawyer’s son. … Keep trying to fail upwards, keep trying to suck the right in the right order. I’m coming for your job. You off the wrong.”
The former UFC champ plans to prove Campbell wrong by being at centre stage during a successful debut MMA event for MVP and Netflix.
If things go well, she hopes it will help her start taking steps toward becoming what she calls ‘the new Dana White’ in MMA – a role she feels much more qualified for than Campbell.
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