Everything We've Been Writing About All Year Leads to Saturday Night on Netflix

Five days from now, Ronda Rousey fights Gina Carano on Netflix. Francis Ngannou returns to MMA on the same card. Nate Diaz fights Mike Perry. Junior dos Santos is on it. Muhammad Mokaev is on it. Aline Pereira is on it. Eleven fights total. The Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. 325 million Netflix subscribers worldwide.

Every single fighter on this card left the UFC or never signed with them in the first place. Every single one.

We've been writing about this moment all year. The $40K minimum pay. Ngannou's $30 million. Rousey calling the UFC the worst place to make money. The $67 million CEO. The Harrison beef. All of those stories were building toward one night. That night is Saturday.

The Card

The bout order just dropped today and there's been a shake up. Nate Diaz vs Mike Perry got bumped to co-main event over Ngannou vs Lins. That tells you where MVP thinks the real money fight is on this card. The full lineup from top to bottom:

Main event: Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano. Featherweight. Five rounds. The fight that's been rumored for fifteen years finally happening on Netflix.

Co-main event: Nate Diaz vs Mike Perry. Welterweight. Five rounds. Two of the most violent fan favorites in UFC history running it back on a different platform.

Featured bout: Francis Ngannou vs Philipe Lins. Heavyweight. Five rounds. The former UFC heavyweight champion's return to MMA after boxing Fury and Joshua.

Salahdine Parnasse vs Kenneth Cross. Lightweight. Cross is the guy who told reporters he's making five times what a debuting UFC fighter would earn.

Junior dos Santos vs Robelis Despaigne. Heavyweight. A former UFC champion against a Cuban Olympic bronze medalist.

Muhammad Mokaev vs Adriano Moraes. Flyweight. An undefeated 15-0 prospect against a former ONE Championship champion.

Jason Jackson vs Jeff Creighton. Welterweight. A former Bellator champion on the undercard.

Aline Pereira vs Jade Masson-Wong. Catchweight 130 pounds. Alex Pereira's sister making her MVP debut.

Plus David Mgoyan vs Albert Morales, Namo Fazil vs Jake Babian, and Chris Avila vs Brandon Jenkins filling out the prelims.

Eleven fights. Main card on Netflix. Prelims on Tudum and MVP's YouTube. The whole thing starts at 5 PM ET with the main card at 8 PM ET.

Rousey vs Carano. Fifteen Years Late

This fight has been floating around the MMA world since 2011 when both women were the only two names that mattered in women's combat sports. Carano was the face of women's MMA before anyone else. Rousey took that torch and burned the whole sport down with it. They were supposed to fight eventually. It never happened. Carano went to Hollywood. Rousey went to the UFC and then WWE and then disappeared.

Now they're both back. Rousey is 39. Carano is 44. Carano hasn't fought MMA since her loss to Cris Cyborg in August 2009 bro. That's seventeen years without a professional MMA fight. And Rousey hasn't fought since her knockout loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in December 2016. That's almost ten years.

Is this a real fight between two competitive mixed martial artists? No. Neither woman is in her prime. Neither has been actively competing in MMA for nearly a decade or more. The rust is going to be real and the pace is going to be slow compared to what the current generation of women's MMA looks like.

But that's not the point and it never was. This is an event. It's a spectacle. It's two women who built the entire foundation of women's combat sports stepping into a hexagon cage on the biggest streaming platform in the world because the story is bigger than the competition. And honestly there's nothing wrong with that as long as nobody is pretending this is a legitimate title fight.

Rousey is 12-2 with nine submissions. Her judo and arm bars are still her best weapons. If she can clinch and get the fight to the ground, she's dangerous regardless of age. Carano is 7-1 with three KOs. She's the more natural striker. If the fight stays standing and Carano can find her timing, she's got the power to make it interesting.

My pick is Rousey by submission. The judo and grappling gap is too wide. But I wouldn't be shocked if Carano clips her early because Rousey's chin was always her biggest vulnerability and nine years without taking a punch doesn't fix that lol.

Ngannou Returns to MMA

Francis Ngannou hasn't fought MMA since January 2023 when he beat Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 and then walked away from the promotion. Since then he's boxed Tyson Fury (lost a split decision in a fight most people thought he won), boxed Anthony Joshua (lost by KO), won the PFL heavyweight title, and made over $30 million doing all of it.

Now he's back in an MMA cage for the first time in over three years. Against Philipe Lins. Who is 18-5 and a solid heavyweight but is not in the same conversation as Ngannou on his worst night.

This is a showcase fight. Ngannou is going to walk forward, throw something heavy, and either knock Lins out or wrestle him down and finish him on the ground. The Predator doesn't need a competitive opponent to put on a show. He just needs someone standing across from him.

The real story with Ngannou isn't the Lins fight. It's what comes after. He told ESPN a few weeks ago that UFC fighters don't have the "balls" for free agency and that the opportunity is there for anyone willing to take it. Saturday night is his chance to prove that the MMA version of Ngannou is still elite even after three years away and two boxing losses. If he looks good, the argument for life outside the UFC gets louder. If he looks rusty, the UFC gets to say "see, you should've stayed."

Diaz vs Perry. The Real Co-Main

Nate Diaz called this "a card full of free fighters" at the New York press conference and he wasn't wrong. Diaz left the UFC in 2022. Perry left in 2021. Both of them have been doing bare knuckle, boxing, and everything else under the sun since then. Neither has fought MMA in years.

Perry got bumped to co-main event over Ngannou today, which is a statement from MVP about what they think the real draw is on this card. And honestly they might be right. Diaz vs Perry has the kind of chaotic energy that generates clips. Both guys are going to stand and trade for 25 minutes and somebody is going to get hurt.

Diaz is 22-13. Perry is 14-8 with 11 KOs. Perry has more power. Diaz has more cardio and better jiu jitsu. If this goes past round three, Diaz takes over. If Perry lands something heavy early, it could be a short night.

The Undercard Names That Matter

Two names on the undercard deserve your attention even if you don't know them yet.

Muhammad Mokaev. 15-0. Flyweight. The UFC released him in 2024 after he missed weight and had some issues with the promotion. He's 25 years old, undefeated, and one of the best flyweight prospects in the world. The UFC letting him go was one of those decisions that looks worse every time he wins. He's facing former ONE Championship champion Adriano Moraes, which is a legit test.

Kenneth Cross. The guy who told reporters he's making five times what a debuting UFC fighter would earn on this card. He's fighting Salahdine Parnasse at lightweight. Win or lose, his comments about pay already made him one of the most important voices on this card. If he wins impressively, the conversation about fighter pay gets even louder.

What Saturday Actually Means

Here's what I keep coming back to. The UFC is running a Fight Night card at the Apex on the same day. Allen vs Costa. Nobody is talking about it.

Meanwhile MVP is streaming eleven fights on Netflix to 325 million subscribers with Rousey, Ngannou, Diaz, Perry, JDS, Mokaev, a former Bellator champion, and Alex Pereira's sister all on the same card. The prelims are free on YouTube. The main card is included in every Netflix subscription. There is zero barrier to entry for the biggest MMA event of the month.

And every single person fighting on Saturday left the UFC or chose not to sign with them.

We've been writing about the fighter pay problem for months. The CEO making $67 million. Champions signing RAF deals on the side. Rousey revealing the $40K minimum and recruiting Paddy Pimblett. The biggest stars walking out the door while nobody at the top seems worried.

Saturday is the proof of concept. If MVP pulls numbers anywhere close to what the Jake Paul boxing events did on Netflix (108 million viewers for Paul vs Tyson), the conversation about the UFC being the only place that matters in MMA is officially over. Not because the UFC isn't still the biggest promotion. It is. But because "biggest" and "only" stopped being the same word a while ago and Saturday is the night everyone else figures that out.

Rousey built the foundation for women's MMA inside the UFC. Now she's headlining a card outside the UFC that might reach more eyeballs in one night than most UFC pay per views reach in a month. Ngannou walked away from the heavyweight title and made $30 million proving free agency works. Diaz called it "a card full of free fighters" and he's right.

Saturday at 8 PM ET on Netflix. No paywall. No additional cost. Just eleven fights and the biggest question in MMA right now: is the UFC still the only show in town?

We already know the answer. Saturday is when everyone else finds out.

Thanks for riding with CageLore. Stay locked in!

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Netflix MVP MMA card?

MVP MMA 1 takes place Saturday May 16, 2026 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. Prelims start at 5 PM ET on Tudum and MVP's YouTube. The main card starts at 8 PM ET on Netflix. All fights are included with a standard Netflix subscription at no additional cost.

What is the full fight card?

Main event: Rousey vs Carano (featherweight). Co-main: Diaz vs Perry (welterweight). Featured: Ngannou vs Lins (heavyweight). Plus Parnasse vs Cross, dos Santos vs Despaigne, Mokaev vs Moraes, Jackson vs Creighton, Pereira vs Masson-Wong, Mgoyan vs Morales, Fazil vs Babian, and Avila vs Jenkins.

When did Rousey and Carano last fight MMA?

Rousey last fought in December 2016 when she lost to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. Carano last fought in August 2009 when she lost to Cris Cyborg in Strikeforce. Combined, the two women in the main event haven't fought MMA in over 26 years.

When did Ngannou last fight MMA?

Ngannou's last MMA fight was January 2023 when he beat Ciryl Gane at UFC 270. He has since boxed Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua and won the PFL heavyweight championship. The Lins fight is his MMA return after over three years away.

How many Netflix subscribers can watch?

Over 325 million subscribers globally can watch at no additional cost. For comparison, the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson boxing event on Netflix drew approximately 108 million viewers.

Is the UFC running an event on the same day?

Yes. UFC Fight Night: Allen vs Costa takes place at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas on the same day. The scheduling overlap means the UFC and MVP are directly competing for MMA viewership on May 16.