Ronda Rousey needed exactly 17 seconds to grab her comeback victory. Returning after a decade away, Rousey submitted Gina Carano via armbar in the first round at 0:17 in the main event of Jake Paul’s MVP MMA card, live on Netflix. She rushed across the cage, put Carano on the floor instantly and locked up the armbar that left Carano with no prior answer.
If Carano didn’t quit, then the 39-year-old could have broken Carano’s arm just as she promised before. Luckily, the fight ended without any major injury, even though nobody expected the main event to be over almost before it started.
In her post-fight interview, Rousey announced her permanent retirement from fighting to focus on expanding her family, saying, “There’s no way I could’ve ended it better than this. I want to have some more babies and I’ve got to get cooking.”
And she also used her presser time to shade every champion who ever walked away with the belt still around their waist. She did not name anyone directly, but her comments indirectly brought Khabib Nurmagomedov into the spotlight as she nearly called every fighter like him selfish.
Ronda Rousey Takes Aim at Undefeated Retirements, Khabib Nurmagomedov in Her Crosshairs
The mother of two said she is glad she lost her UFC belt, arguing that retiring undefeated as champion robs a division of its momentum.
She said, “This is much better than if I retired undefeated. I don’t think I truly understood it until I got into pro wrestling and realized — if you retire with the title, you take all the equity with you. That would’ve hurt the division if I did that. I think that’s part of the reason the UFC’s 145-pound women’s division disappeared after Amanda retired. The division needs to be passed on.”
❌🏆 Ronda Rousey says she’s happy she lost her UFC belt because retiring undefeated could’ve hurt the division:
“This is much better than if I retired undefeated. I don’t think I truly understood it until I got into pro wrestling and realized — if you retire with the title, you… pic.twitter.com/p0gGrWOhl1
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) May 17, 2026
In the UFC, Nurmagomedov is the most prominent example of a champion who retired undefeated. This is not the first time Rousey has targeted Khabib.
Last October on Bert Kreischer’s podcast, Rousey criticized him bluntly by name, saying, “I think the only reason why MMA fans have their lips so firmly planted at the base of Khabib’s — is because he retired before he reached his limit.”
Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, dismissed her comments as natural jealousy, saying, “Khabib is just an icon. She can’t compare herself to Khabib. She is not a GOAT. She is just unhappy.”
While her post-fight comments on Saturday did not name specific individuals, her target is pretty easy to decode.
The Debate: Who Is Ronda Rousey Actually Talking About?
However, Rousey frames this as a broader problem in MMA. She pointed to Chuck Liddell and Anderson Silva as examples of fighters who stayed too long, lost, and were abandoned by fans. She argued that this toxic fan culture forces champions to retire early with their titles to protect their legacies.
Several champions have retired with their titles and left their divisions struggling. Nurmagomedov retired at 29-0 after defeating Justin Gaethje, vacating the lightweight title. Henry Cejudo vacated two weight classes while holding the belts. Nunes retired with both the bantamweight and featherweight titles, which caused the 145-pound division to fold completely.
But the counterargument is also valid. Retiring undefeated is incredibly rare in combat sports. Khabib’s 29-0 record came from dominating top fighters like Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor and Gaethje. Expecting a fighter to absorb more physical damage just to give someone else a chance to beat them is hard to justify.
