Ronda Rousey fires back at Khamzat Chimaev: “I do not owe TKO’s UFC a damn thing… Unlike Kumquat I’ve a 100% finish rate.”
Ronda Rousey has fired back at Khamzat Chimaev after he said she was being ungrateful toward the UFC, using Thursday’s fight week press conference to draw a line between the UFC leaders who backed her career and the current TKO-run company she says she owes nothing to. Chimaev’s criticism came weeks after Rousey renewed her attacks on UFC pay and structure, and just days after he lost the UFC middleweight title to Sean Strickland by split decision at UFC 328 in Newark.
Ronda Rousey responds to Khamzat Chimaev
Rousey responded during Thursday’s fight week press conference for her Netflix return bout against Gina Carano. In her remarks, she said she still feels deep gratitude toward Dana White and former UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, but drew a sharp distinction between them and the UFC’s current ownership structure under TKO. Rousey said, “I would want to make something abundantly clear,” before adding that she owes Dana and the Fertittas “immensely” and would never speak badly about them, yet does not owe “TKO’s UFC a damn thing.”
She did not stop there. Rousey then turned directly to Chimaev with a mocking response, saying he was upset because questions at his own press event shifted toward her comeback fight, and she closed the jab by saying she has a “100% finish rate.” Multiple reports and video coverage from the press conference carried the same line of attack, including her nicknames for Chimaev and her dismissal of his recent performances.
“I would want to make something abundantly clear and that’s that I owe Dana and the Fertittas immensely. And I would be caught dead before you ever heard me say a bad thing about any of them, but my loyalty is to them and not the company they sold. And I do not owe TKO’s UFC a damn thing. Left lip Lincoln is just hating because at his press conference, people were asking about me and at might fight no one gives a sh*t. Unlike kamquat I’ve a 100% finish rate”
Chimaev is coming off the first loss of his professional MMA career after Sean Strickland beat him by split decision in the UFC 328 main event on May 9 in Newark, New Jersey. Two judges scored the fight 48-47 for Strickland, handing him his second reign as UFC middleweight champion, while Chimaev’s team later said he wants an immediate rematch.
Rousey, meanwhile, is set to fight Gina Carano on Saturday, May 16, with the event streaming live on Netflix. Netflix’s official fight week posting confirms the bout time as 9 p.m. ET and presents the matchup as the headline attraction of the card. The press conference itself also placed Rousey and Carano at the center of the promotion, which helps explain why the Rousey-Chimaev back-and-forth quickly became part of the event’s news cycle.
Rousey’s comments this week were not aimed at the people she says helped launch her career. They were aimed at the company as it exists now, and Chimaev’s pushback gave her another opening to make that point in public before one of the biggest comeback fights of the year.
