Ronda Rousey is returning to the cage, but it won’t be under the UFC’s umbrella.
But it wasn’t without trying.
“I reached out to Dana [White] and asked if he would be interested in it,” Rousey said of her upcoming mixed martial arts fight with Gina Carano during an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”
“It didn’t exactly work out with the UFC, but it led us to here today.”
Instead, Rousey, 39, signed on with Jake Paul’s company, Most Valuable Promotions, to fight Carano, a fighter-turned-actress, in a featherweight bout on Netflix on May 16 at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Rousey and Carano are both seen as pioneers of women’s MMA. Carano was one of the sport’s early breakout women’s stars, paving the way for Rousey to become the first female fighter to sign with UFC in 2013.
She has participated in combat sports for a decade, having last fought in 2016.
Rousey famously started her UFC career 12-0 before losing her last two fights to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.
The fight will be a return to the sport for Carano after a long absence as well.
The 43-year-old was 7-1 in MMA before retiring in 2010 and pursuing an acting career, appearing in “Fast & Furious 6,” “Deadpool” and “The Mandalorian.”
In her last fight in 2010, she lost to all-time great female fighter Cris Cyborg for the Strikeforce promotion.
Rousey said the fight has been a long time in the making.
“It took a long time to get us here,” she told ESPN. “We fought for this. We fought to fight each other. There were a lot of obstacles along the way.
“I told her, if I have to go out there and train you myself to fight me, I will. We made it happen. We had to work together to overcome every obstacle to get here. It’s really surreal because it’s been a secret for so long, I can’t believe I’m actually able to talk about it.”