Hunter Campbell may have made one of the biggest missteps of his career by mishandling Ronda Rousey. The former UFC champion has recently taken repeated shots at the UFC executive in interviews and across social media, publicly airing her frustration with how she was treated behind the scenes.
Ever since her fight against Gina Carano was announced, ‘The Arm Collector’ has made it clear that she holds serious resentment toward Campbell. During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Rousey claimed Campbell was the primary reason a fight with Carano didn’t land under the UFC banner.
“It wasn’t personal,” Rousey told Helwani. “Well, with Hunter, it was personal because he was just a f—ing a—hole about it. He was just being such a chauvinist prick, and he was being so dismissive and trying to get me and Gina to value ourselves less from the get-go, and acting like this wasn’t the greatest thing that has fallen into his lap since he’s f—ing been there.”
Notably, Rousey had approached the UFC for her mega fight with Gina Carano. However, things didn’t work out the way she imagined. So, the 39-year-old ended up working with Most Valuable Promotions, co-founded by Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian. The pair is now scheduled to face each other on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, live on Netflix.
“He was like, ‘You guys are just so much older. I don’t know how it’s going to do.’ Who the f—k is this guy? I didn’t even know who he was. I was told he’s the ‘lawyer’ [who’s] going to come and show you your pay-per-view numbers. I was like, ‘Fine. I don’t care. I’m going to knock this out of the park. I love having my pay be performance-based. F—k you, I’ll go show you.’
“Dana mentioned that he wanted me and Gina to fight for the 145-pound title because it was vacant, and it’s a way to retire the belt,” Rousey said. “Then Hunter was like, ‘Yeah, then we can get rid of that division.’ Just the way that he spoke of it, and how dismissive he was—the disdain that he had for the fighters of that weight.
“I’m like … This is what you think—women [who] are heavier at 135 pounds can’t offer you anything? That they’re worthless? That they’re worth scoffing at?’ It just really rubbed me the wrong way that this f—ing guy is the person [who’s] going to be shepherding the company that I helped build. I was actually talking to my mom about it because he was like, ‘Oh, I met your mom. She was so great, tell her I said hi.’
“Alright. So, after the meeting, I was like, ‘Mom, do you know who Hunter Campbell is?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, he’s a f—ing a—hole. Screw that guy.’ Why don’t you like him? ‘He’d sell tickets to Christians being fed to lions.’”
Ronda Rousey noted that her mother, AnnaMaria De Mars, is a member of the California State Athletic Commission. And she had met with Campbell to discuss how to get state approval for slap-fighting in Dana White’s Power Slap league. Rousey claimed that Campbell told her mother that fighters would be “doing meth in a trailer park” if they weren’t on Power Slap.
“That’s what you think of the fighters? We are glorified bum fights to this guy,” Rousey added. “This guy does not have a job because he’s good at it; he has a job because he is Dana and Lorenzo [Fertitta’s] lawyer’s son. He was a f—ing intern when I was there before, and now he’s f—ing coming up to me saying, ‘I don’t know how you and Gina are going to do.’
“Like motherf—er, I’m going to put on a bigger fight with Gina than you have your entire f—ing career. Keep trying to fail upwards, motherf—er. Keep trying to suck the right d—s in the right order. I’m f—ing coming for your job. You f—ing pissed off the wrong b—ch. I told Dana, ‘The last thing you want me to do is leave this office with something to prove, because this motherf—-er is pissing me off and now I have something to prove.
“That’s why I’m going to go do some change-the-world s—t.’ Dana’s like, ‘I just want you to make as much money as possible. You go do it.’ Long story long, he’s a d—k.”
In any case, though, Hunter Campbell may have really fumbled the bag by alienating Rousey. Because they will never get a second chance.
Ronda Rousey believes the Gina Carano fight is her last
The 39-year-old has claimed that her fight against Gina Carano will be her last appearance inside a cage. Ahead of Saturday’s main event on Netflix’s first MMA card, Rousey spoke on The Ariel Helwani Show, explaining why the Carano bout feels like the perfect ending to her storied career.
“This is the peak, I can’t go higher than this. This is the dream fight. This is the absolute pinnacle, I think, for me,” Rousey said. “This is the perfect way to end it.”
The former UFC bantamweight champion also compared continuing her career to a television series that overstays its welcome.
“There will always be fights,” Rousey said. “There’s nothing bigger than this, this is it… we need to end at the peak.”
Having said that, it appears the upcoming fight means far more to Ronda Rousey than simply proving she still has it. She seemingly wants the event’s success to serve as the ultimate rebuttal to the “chauvinist” and “dismissive” Hunter Campbell.
