Jake Paul and Ronda Rousey have taken aim at the UFC after the Freedom 250 White House event failed to match Most Valuable Promotions’ MMA viewing record. The numbers are in — and they make for uncomfortable reading if you’re Dana White.
UFC White House Event Falls Short of MVP MMA Record
Paramount confirmed on Thursday that the Freedom 250 event, staged on the South Lawn of the White House, averaged 7 million U.S. viewers. Impressive on paper — until you stack it against what MVP pulled off on Netflix on 16th May. Ronda Rousey’s brutal 17-second armbar submission of Gina Carano averaged 9.3 million viewers in the United States alone. That’s a 2.3 million gap that Paul and Rousey were never going to let slide quietly.
Furthermore, the MVP MMA event peaked at nearly 17 million viewers and drew 12.4 million overall, according to Netflix. It’s worth noting that Nielsen — the gold standard for TV ratings measurement — did not independently verify MVP’s figures. Paramount, meanwhile, stated that combined U.S. and Latin American viewership for the White House card totalled 17 million, with those numbers backed by both Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
Paul and Rousey Land Their Punches on Social Media
Naturally, Jake Paul — who co-founded MVP alongside former UFC chief financial officer Nakisa Bidarian — was never going to stay silent. Writing on X on Friday, he stated: “As a boxing promoter it feels good waking up today being the biggest MMA promoter.” Punchy, deliberate, and completely on brand.
Ronda Rousey, meanwhile, took direct aim at UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell on X, writing: “Lmao! Kiss my a** Hunter Campbell.” No filter, no diplomacy — just Rousey doing what Rousey does.
The MVP MMA: Rousey vs. Carano card was the promotion’s debut venture into mixed martial arts, positioned aggressively as a “takeover” of the sport. After these numbers, that claim carries a lot more weight than the UFC probably anticipated. The war between the establishment and the challengers just got significantly more interesting.
