Netflix Leans Further Into Spectacle Fights With Rousey-Carano

The two biggest names in women MMA fighting history are coming out of retirement to face each other on Netflix, which has made a trend out of “eventizing” spectacle fights. 

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano will fight each other on May 16 at the Intuit Dome outside Los Angeles, Netflix announced Monday morning. The fight will feature five rounds at five minutes apiece, and the women will wear four-ounce gloves. Netflix’s release stipulated that the fight will take place in a “hexagon”; UFC owns the trademark rights to the Octagon ring. The fight will run in partnership with Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions. 

While this was a dream fight once upon a time, it’s been quite a while since either fought competitively. Rousey, 39, had her last UFC fight in 2016. She was badly beaten in her last two fights, by Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm. Carano, 43, lost her last fight to Cris Cyborg via TKO in her last fight in Strikeforce—in 2009.

In the interim, Rousey was part of WWE between 2018 and 2023 and Carano had a burgeoning acting career that was derailed when Disney removed her from The Mandalorian for posting controversial memes (she later sued Disney, and the two sides settled, with the entertainment conglomerate agreeing to identify future acting roles for her). 

This is Netflix’s first MMA fight. 

Netflix has proven that there’s a marketplace for spectacle boxing matches. In 2024, Netflix said Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul had an average minute audience of 108 million viewers globally (these numbers were not compiled by Nielsen). Tyson was 57 years old at the time and some observers were surprised the fight was even sanctioned.

A subsequent Jake Paul fight in December, in which he was heavily overmatched by Anthony Joshua, a former heavyweight boxer who at 36 is near his athletic prime, drew 33 million global viewers according to the streaming service. Even if the Rousey-Carano fight doesn’t hit these numbers, there will still be a high curiosity factor based on their level of celebrity.

Netflix has not only done spectacle fights—it also aired the highly anticipated boxing match between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford, promoted by TKO and Saudi Arabia official Turki Alalshikh, as well as the third fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano (their second fight was on the Paul-Tyson undercard). 

Fight nights follow the strategy that Netflix has thus far been deploying in live sports, where it nibbles on big events as opposed to full seasons. It has aired an NFL doubleheader on Christmas each of the past two seasons, and will have MLB Opening Day and the Home Run Derby this year. 

The contrast to this strategy is WWE Raw, which is live sports-adjacent content, albeit scripted, that airs every Monday night on the streaming platform.