The UFC White House card delivered 17 million viewers and 7 million viewers on average in the United States, and it didn’t take long for Ronda Rousey and Jake Paul to celebrate the fact that the recent MVP MMA card on Netflix produced bigger ratings.
The card headlined by Rousey’s return from retirement against Gina Carano also had 17 million viewers, but the event averaged 9.3 million viewers in the U.S., which obviously beats the UFC White House card that aired on Paramount+. That led to Rousey continuing her very public campaign against UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell when she said “Lmao! Kiss my ass Hunter Campbell” on Twitter and Paul touted the success of the MVP MMA event by adding “as a boxing promoter it feels good waking up today being the biggest MMA promoter.”
But UFC legend Matt Brown isn’t so sure that Rousey and Paul should be taking such a victory lap, especially after the White House card is still being talked about non-stop more than a week later while the MVP MMA show feels like an afterthought now.
“I don’t know what they’re celebrating there,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “It’s already forgotten that card happened. The only reason we’re talking about it now is because they’re doing their victory lap or whatever. I don’t know what Ronda’s trying to get out of instigating [with] Hunter Campbell. Dude’s got a nice salary, he lives a good life I’m sure, he’s working on building big things, I don’t know what are you doing? What do you think you just accomplished?
“I highly doubt Hunter Campbell is [sitting around saying] ‘oh shit, they got more viewers than us, what are we going to do?’ No, he’s eating dinner at a five-star Michelin restaurant and talking to his buddies and about the Conor McGregor-Max Holloway fight. I don’t know where these people think that this stuff actually matters that much.”
While Paul and business partner Nakisa Bidarian have said that Most Valuable Promotions is going to continue promoting MMA events moving forward, none of those plans have been cemented with a second card after Rousey vs. Carano.
Rousey has already stated numerous times that she’s retired and won’t fight again so that’s not an option. Carano hinted at another fight but there’s little chance she would pull the same kind of ratings as Rousey, who was a superstar during her run with the UFC.
Brown believes it all really comes down to the future because MVP MMA may have produced great ratings for one card but that’s not a threat to the UFC, especially with Conor McGregor’s return on the horizon in July.
“If you’re building something meaningful, sustainable, long-lasting and actually threatening their business in some capacity, now things might be a little different,” Brown explained. “You were able to muster together an event, which even per capita and I don’t even know if they have those kinds of numbers in entertainment, but if you look at 9 million viewers versus 300 million subscribers [on Netflix] or whatever the number is versus 7 million viewers and 50 million subscribers [on Paramount+] that percentage is way higher.
“I’m just not sure what they’re trying to accomplish. If it came out the next day and they’re like this is going to be our next show and we’re going to beat you again, something like that, all right cool. I don’t think Hunter, Dana [White], Ari [Emanuel], TKO Group, I don’t think a single one of these people are losing one second of sleep over this.”
While the first batch of ratings for the UFC White House card have been revealed, the company still has to release the full global numbers so the overall viewership is going to increase quite a bit.
As far as comparing that to the MVP MMA card, Brown argues the biggest problem Paul faces moving forward is that his lone event headlined by Rousey vs. Carano came and went rather quickly, but the UFC White House card is a juggernaut still dominating the conversation.
Like it or not, Brown knows these things matter and he just doesn’t buy Paul somehow actually threatening the UFC as an MMA promoter.
“We’re talking about it two weeks later, the aftermath of the [UFC White House] event,” Brown said. “After the Ronda-MVP card, we talked about it the next day and we’re like that was about what we expected. Cool. Really good production. OK, let’s move on now. That was the end of it.
“I don’t think anyone actually does really care that much. Ronda’s taking anything she can get. Jake Paul, he’s promoting fights so he’s going to try to show victories any way he can, but I don’t know why Ronda cares. You got your money. Go chill. Go to your yacht and go chill. It’s over now. What do think you’re doing?”
The battle for ratings supremacy matters a whole lot more if MVP MMA really builds itself into a business that actually challenges the UFC. Until then, Brown says he knows enough about the UFC to recognize nobody is sweating the competition.
“MVP’s got a long way to go and I’ve said it from the beginning, they’re barking up the wrong tree,” Brown said. “You don’t mess with the UFC and its game. You’re trying to fight in their own arena, and I think that’s just a bad game to play. We’ll see what they do. They’re pretty smart people. If you’re the promoter, I understand taking a victory lap here. You’re the promoter. That’s what you should do. You’re not going to concede and say ‘oh the UFC is doing great!’ You’re promoting, I get that. You’ve got to take what you can get.
“All I can say, hopefully they do keep something sustainable. I hope they do something good. I think it would be good for the sport having something sustainable. They’re in a tough battle here. The UFC’s not who you want to f*ck with.”
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio
Read the full article here
