51 minutes ago 1

Joe Rogan blown away by Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano viewers; Netflix numbers spark debate!

Joe Rogan backs Jake Paul and Ronda Rousey’s event as a huge win in the MMA

Joe Rogan thinks Ronda Rousey’s return, which drew in 17 million viewers, is a positive step for MMA.

The event was put together by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions in partnership with Netflix and took place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood.

Francis Ngannou and Nate Diaz made their returns earlier on the card before Rousey headlined against Gina Carano.

The aim was to break viewership records, and they did just that. Over 17 million fans tuned in for her main event against Carano, easily topping the sport’s previous mark.

Joe Rogan reacts to 17 million tuning in for Ronda Rousey’s comeback on Netflix

While Conor McGregor’s rivalry with Khabib Nurmagomedov drew a record 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, the most-watched MMA fight before this was Cain Velasquez’s first bout against Junior dos Santos.

That UFC Fight Night main event in 2011 had an audience of around 8.8 million viewers on Fox. Ahead of her return, Rousey said surpassing that number would be enough for her, and she went well beyond it.

A few days after the MVP MMA event, Netflix shared the numbers: viewership peaked at 17 million during the brief headliner and averaged 12.4 million during the top three fights on the card.

Speaking on Joe Rogan’s JRE MMA Show, referee John McCarthy credited Rousey for connecting with casual fans who don’t regularly follow the sport.

“And it’s hard to get people to understand you need to get the casuals, the ones that don’t watch fights all the time, and that’s the one thing I’ll give Ronda Rousey.

“I thought she did an amazing job of talking and putting things out there the way she did. She got people’s attention. She did what was her job,” he added.

Rogan echoed that view, seeing the high viewership as a big win for MMA as a whole. But he also pointed out his frustration that mainstream attention still relies so heavily on big names.

“Seventeen million people are watching [MVP MMA]. That’s huge,” Rogan said. “It’s all good for everybody. It’s good for the sport. It’s great for the sport. It’s like, that’s what we need. We need more competition, more eyeballs on it.

“And unfortunately for the people that are casuals, it has to be a name.”

The upcoming UFC International Fight Week is also expected to pull in casual fans when McGregor faces Holloway again at UFC 329 later this year – another highly anticipated return much like Rousey’s recent comeback fight in May against Carano.