Ronda Rousey kept the peace when talking about Gina Carano. She did not do the same for Kayla Harrison.
After Harrison accused Rousey of making up an old judo training story, Rousey fired back hard and turned the whole thing into a much bigger fight. What started as an argument over one story quickly became a shot-for-shot feud about honesty, relevance, fame, and who really built women’s MMA into a business people care about. Rousey made the comments at Wednesday’s press conference ahead of her Netflix fight with Gina Carano on May 16. Earlier in the build, Harrison had already blasted Rousey’s version of the story and dismissed the Carano fight.
Harrison’s original quote was direct.
“So she’s online telling this story about how, ‘Yeah, I had a lot of pride so I’d be out there for an hour with these girls and then finally a 90-kilo guy would take pity on me and come out and throw me,’” Harrison said. “Dude, that is literally a blatant f*cking lie. Now you’re just making shit up. That never happened.”
Rousey answered with even more heat.
“[Kayla] says that I lied about training in judo in Canada in 2006. Who the f*ck are you to call me a liar?” Rousey said. “I was training there for five months. Bitch, you weren’t even there. Over the last decade and a half of being a public figure, I have cultivated a reputation for being unabashedly truthful. This bitch just got here and was already caught in a lie.
“What did she say after she won the belt? ‘Oh, I’m never going to say anything bad about Ronda, she took care of me when I was broke in Japan, and she bought me groceries.’ How about you shut the f*ck up and eat your groceries?”
The exchange did not stop with the judo story. Harrison had also argued that Rousey vs. Carano should not be sold as the biggest women’s MMA fight ever when both women are returning after long layoffs. Rousey responded by going straight at Harrison’s relevance and place in the sport.
“Gina is so relevant that she’s the whole reason the 145-pound division even exists. I am so relevant that the only reason she has a job at the UFC is because of me,” Rousey said. “Kayla is so irrelevant that she couldn’t even keep the 145-pound division around. Honestly, she’s just sour because no matter what she does or what she accomplishes, she can’t change the fact that she has the charisma of a wet towel and will always be in me and Gina’s shadow.
“So the next time she wants to talk shit, she should look down at her feet and consider who paved the road that she’s walking on. Oh wait, she can’t look down at her feet because she’s too busy holding onto the belt in a neck brace.”
Ronda Rousey and Kayla Harrison are talking from two very different places
Rousey’s last MMA fight was her loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 on December 30, 2016, which came after her knockout loss to Holly Holm in 2015. Harrison’s most recent fight was her second-round kimura win over Julianna Peña at UFC 316 to capture the UFC women’s bantamweight title. She is the active champion now, while Rousey is coming back after a long gap with the Carano fight. There is also fresh tension around Harrison’s next move after her earlier comments about the Amanda Nunes fight and co-main event spot.
Rousey also took aim at the idea that Harrison’s next fight could be treated as a bigger attraction than the Netflix-backed comeback bout with Carano.
“Her and Hunter [Campbell] acting like her next upcoming fight is the biggest women’s fight of all time,” Rousey said. “Then why is it being booked as a co-main for a men’s interim title fight?
“The bitch isn’t even bigger than Paddy the Baddy [Pimblett]. No offense to Paddy. He’s got more potential than anybody in the UFC, and he should call me when his contract runs out.”
Ronda Rousey just COOKED Kayla Harrison… holy sh*t 😳😭
“She couldn’t even keep the 145 division around”
“If she thinks her fight is the biggest women’s fight of all-time, why’s she getting paid less now then I was 10 years ago”
(via @netflixsports)pic.twitter.com/Eacvp5PPas
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 15, 2026
Ronda Rousey responds to Kayla Harrison’s recent comments:
What did she say after she won the belt? ‘Oh I’m never gonna say anything bad about Ronda. She took care of me when I was broke in Japan and bought me groceries.’ How about you shut the fuck up and eat your groceries…… pic.twitter.com/aO8oGuXGZZ
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) April 15, 2026
She kept going and made the biggest claim of the whole rant.
“If she thinks that her fight is the biggest women’s fight of all-time, why is she getting paid less now than I was 10 years ago?” Rousey said. “So riddle me this, bitch, are you overvalued or are you overpaid? What really pisses me off more than anything else is how small she thinks. This is not just the biggest women’s fight of all time; this is the biggest MMA fight of all time, it’s going to get the most views on the biggest platform on the card with the biggest stars, and it was assembled by and will be headlined by two women who dared to dream big.
“This dream is going to bring more opportunities and greater revenue share to fighters than they’ve ever had before because this fight is bigger than just me and Gina. It’s bigger than anybody on this stage. It represents an unstoppable force of change in this industry, spearheaded by the fighters themselves. You bet your f*cking ass this is the biggest MMA fight of all time. Bar none.” via MMAFighting
At this point, nobody is pretending this is a small disagreement. Harrison questioned Rousey’s truthfulness. Rousey answered by unloading on Harrison’s star power, legacy, and standing in the sport.
