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Netflix will stream its first live MMA event on 16 May, headlined by Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano, and yes, that’s a sentence that would’ve sounded ridiculous five years ago.
The event takes place at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles and will stream globally at no extra cost to subscribers. It’s co-promoted by Most Valuable Promotions, the Jake Paul-backed outfit that’s already worked with Netflix on live boxing cards. That alone should tell you where Netflix is taking the world of combat sports.
This isn’t an experiment anymore. With WWE Raw, Premium Live Events, boxing, golf, live talk shows, and now MMA, Netflix is building a proper combat-sports lane. But building a platform is one thing. Filling it with the right fight(ers) is something else entirely.
Why This Fight Even Exists
Here’s the part nobody says out loud: Netflix couldn’t book current UFC champions even if it wanted to. Top-tier MMA fighters are locked into promotional contracts. So if you’re launching your first MMA card and want a global audience, you look for names that carry weight without contractual baggage.
For better or for worse, Rousey and Carano fit that brief perfectly.
Rousey returns at 12-2, a former UFC bantamweight champion and Olympic bronze medallist in judo who once armbarred half the division in under a minute. She hasn’t fought in nearly a decade. In that time, she crossed over to WWE in 2018 and headlined WrestleMania 35 the following year as Women’s Champion. She even grabbed a few Hollywood credits in franchises like Fast & Furious and The Expendables.
Carano, 7-1, predates the UFC’s women’s division entirely. She fought from 2006 to 2009 and headlined the first major MMA main event to feature two women. For a while, she was the face of women’s MMA before Rousey turned it into a mainstream phenomenon.
They’ve never fought. But like any other dream match, the bout has been floated around for years. Now it’s finally happening at featherweight, 145 pounds, under the Unified Rules of MMA. Five five-minute rounds. Four-ounce gloves. A hexagon cage.
And yes, you read that correctly. It’s not the UFC octagon. It’s not Bellator’s circle. It’s a six-sided cage that narrowly avoids becoming a UFC knock-off. To be fair, there are only so many shapes available, and the real question is whether either of them still has it.
The Rousey Factor
If this were purely about competitive form, you’d have questions. Rousey hasn’t fought since 2016. Carano hasn’t competed since 2009. In their prime, it would have been a war. In 2026, it feels more like nostalgia with gloves on.
But Rousey wasn’t just a champion. She was the moment. When she was finishing fights in 14 seconds, it felt like women’s MMA had shifted overnight. She didn’t just win. She changed the temperature. Even her losses reshaped the division. Just ask Holly Holm.
But her return isn’t about rankings. It’s about legacy, curiosity and whether lightning can strike twice.
She’s calling it “the biggest superfight in women’s combat sport history.” Sure, it’s promotional, but based on name recognition alone, it’s not completely absurd.
The Carano Question
Carano’s story is more complicated. After leaving MMA, she built a solid acting career with roles in Haywire, Fast & Furious 6, Deadpool, and The Mandalorian. She played Cara Dune before being fired by Disney following a string of social media posts, including comments comparing conservative backlash online to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust. The fallout ended her Star Wars run and sparked an ongoing legal dispute against Disney, backed by Elon Musk.
For some viewers, Carano’s involvement will add intrigue, while others will be rolling their eyes, and Netflix knows it. Just look at the numbers around Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson (roughly 108 million global live viewers).
From a pure fight perspective, Carano was one of the first women to prove there was a real audience for female MMA. Without that early crossover appeal, there’s a case Rousey wouldn’t have taken off in the way she did. Even Rousey has acknowledged as much.
Carano says the comeback has only happened because of Ronda, calling the matchup a long-standing dream: “This is an honour… What a time to be alive.”
Which brings us back to the real play here.
What This Means for Netflix
No matter who has their hand raised at the end of the fight, Netflix wins.
Netflix is carving out live sport without buying an entire league. No decade-long broadcast deal. No pay-per-view model to test. Just log in and watch.
It’s a low-risk, high-curiosity play built around crossover stars and comeback narratives. A formula they’ve clearly borrowed from professional wrestling. Big names, clear stakes, and a built-in backstory. If this pulls numbers (and it almost certainly will), expect more.
There are plenty of big names and unfinished stories floating around combat sports for Netflix to take advantage of. You only have to look at the constant “what if” chatter around hypothetical cards, even the wild UFC White House rumours, to see the appetite is there.
This isn’t about competing with the UFC tomorrow, but rather proving you don’t need the whole sport. You just need the fight people can’t ignore.
Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano Live on Netflix Event Details
Date: 16 May
Venue: Intuit Dome, Los Angeles
Stream: Live globally on Netflix, included in all plans
Weight class: Featherweight, 145 lbs
Rounds: Five
Gloves: 4 oz
If you’d rather feel it in the room, tickets go on sale Thursday, 5 March via Ticketmaster. The fighters will also come face-to-face that same day at the official kickoff press conference at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, which will stream for fans who want the early theatrics.
As for the rest of the card, it’s still taking shape. Expect announcements to roll out as 16 May gets closer.
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