Ariel Helwani feels Ronda Rousey may have accidentally left millions of viewers on the table during her main event fight against Gina Carano. After Netflix and Most Valuable Promotions officially revealed the numbers for their historic MMA debut, Helwani reacted to the staggering figures, admitting that the main event might have easily surpassed the mythical 20 million mark if ‘Rowdy’ had done one thing differently.

According to the official numbers provided by MVP in their latest press release and disclosed by Ariel Helwani on his show, MVP MMA’s live debut on Netflix averaged 12.4 million global viewers and peaked at over 17 million during the Rousey vs. Carano fight.

In the United States alone, the main card averaged 9.3 million viewers and peaked at 11.6 million, making it the most-watched MMA event in American history. Rather than just reading the numbers and praising the Ronda Rousey-led event for delivering, the MMA journalist couldn’t help but speculate how much higher the numbers would have been if the fight had gone beyond the opening exchange.

“It says that Rousey-Carano peaked at $17 million,” he said on his show. “That’s what I read, right? Imagine if it went two rounds. You know what I mean? Imagine if it went two rounds; it would have probably hit that $20 million number.”

His reasoning here makes sense. The main event ended almost before casual viewers could fully settle in. Ronda Rousey immediately went for a takedown when ‘Conviction’ threw a kick, dragging her to the mat and applying her iconic armbar only 17 seconds into the bout.

It was classic ‘Rowdy,’ but from a business standpoint, the fight disappearing that quickly likely prevented the live audience from peaking organically during the main event.

Netflix has shattered its own records for live event viewership, regularly exceeding 10 million to 20 million viewers for major sports and entertainment, with the peak for a single event recently reaching an estimated 65 million concurrent streams for the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson bout in November 2024. The total live viewers for the event peaked at an insane 108 million viewers. The same for the Canelo Álvarez vs. Terence Crawford bout was 41.4 million and 33 million for the Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua bout in December last year.

Still, there’s no denying that the Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano event surpassed expectations anyway. Prior to the event, Rousey declared publicly that she hoped to shatter the long-standing American MMA television record set by Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez during the UFC’s FOX debut in 2011, which peaked at 8.8 million viewers.

Needless to say, she got her wish. Meanwhile, Junior dos Santos still has his name on the most-watched card in MMA, as funnily enough, he fought Robelis Despaigne on the Netflix card.

The event also reportedly generated a live gate of more than $2.2 million, with massive engagement on social media. For Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, it was the perfect start for MVP MMA.

Even if Ronda Rousey has hinted that this could be her final bout, Netflix’s maiden foray into MMA clearly proved that there is still a large audience willing to tune in when the right stars are attached to the product. However, the same cannot be said when it comes to selling tickets at the arena.

Ronda Rousey’s return falls short against the UFC’s last Intuit Dome card

Those streaming numbers are exactly why the attendance conversation feels a little strange. Netflix and MVP definitely won the battle for online attention, but Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano fell short of the UFC’s last show at the same arena when it came to physically filling the seats.

According to reports, MVP MMA drew 15,795 fans to the Intuit Dome. That is still a significant amount for a new MMA promotion hosting its very first event, especially considering the Intuit Dome holds well over 18,300 seats for combat events.

However, the UFC’s last event in the venue, UFC 311 in January 2025, had an official attendance of 18,370, with over 15,700 confirmed paid tickets. That card was also stacked from top to bottom, with Islam Makhachev, Merab Dvalishvili, Umar Nurmagomedov, Jiri Prochazka, and Jamahal Hill all fighting on the same night.

However, directly comparing the two events is also not completely fair. The UFC is a decades-old machine with a loyal fanbase that travels for major cards, whereas MVP MMA is practically starting from scratch. More importantly, this event was clearly designed for streaming first, rather than gate records.

And, judging by Netflix’s incredible viewership, Paul and Bidarian are unlikely to lose much sleep over a few thousand empty seats when millions more watched from home across the world.