Mauro Ranallo Says His Rizin Appearance Was Dependent on Jerry Millen Not Being Involved

Mauro Ranallo spoke with MMAjunkie about his return to Japan for Rizin FF 5. Ranallo said in the interview that his condition for returning was contingent on former PRIDE executive Jerry Millen, who is a senior vice president at Rizin. Millen reportedly badly mistreated PRIDE’s announcers according to Ranallo’s broadcast partner at the time Bas Rutten and Ranallo, while remaining mostly quiet on the issue, has previously made oblique references to issues with Millen.

“The only way I would have gone back to Japan and worked for Rizin would be if a certain individual, and anyone who knows me and my career knows who he is – I will never, ever utter his name again, the worst human being I’ve ever come across in my life, let alone combat sports – someone who tried to ruin my career once before,” Ranallo said. “When I found out they were actually targeting me specifically because of this individual and their own problems with him, I said, you know what, I won’t do anything for free, but get me on that plane – I’ll be back in Japan calling MMA if it’s because this guy isn’t there and they want to rub it in.”

He added, “For me, mainly, it was going back to right a professional wrong and to flip the biggest bird possible to one of the biggest pieces of (expletive) I’ve ever come across.”

When asked about Ranallo’s comments, Millen told the site, “I’m not going to acknowledge anything he says, because he’s a mentally ill individual, and I don’t want to also be blamed for bullying him.”