Rousey and Paul taunt UFC over White House viewing figures

Ronda Rousey and Jake Paul have taunted the UFC and Dana White for failing to break Most Valuable Promotions' MMA record audience figure with the White House event last week. US broadcaster Paramount said UFC 250 Freedom on Sunday reached 7m people in the US on Paramount+. Netflix said Rousey's 15-second demolition of Gina Carano in May had a US average audience of 9.3m and a US "peak audience" of 11.6m. Paul, who co-founded MVP with Nakisa Bidarian, wrote on X: "As a boxing promoter it feels good waking up today being the biggest MMA promoter." Paul has a history of taunting UFC president White, and the MVP-promoted Rousey v Carano event was positioned as a "takeover" of MMA by boxer Paul. Rousey, who chose to fight on an MVP card rather than the UFC because of fight purse demands, reacted to news of the viewing figures by targeting UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell. "Lmao [laughing my ass off]! Kiss my ass, Hunter Campbell," Rousey said. UFC White House, which had two title fights and was held on the south lawn of US President Donald Trump's home, averaged 8.2m viewers across the US and Latin America. Paramount said 17m people watched at least one minute of the event in those countries, including 15.3m in the US. It said the live audience figures were verified by Nielsen, the industry standard in reporting TV viewership metrics, and Adobe Analytics. …