INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Ronda Rousey says her bout with Gina Carano on May 16 is the biggest fight that can be made in mixed martial arts, and they’re both thrilled to end their lengthy retirements for this long-awaited showdown.
Rousey and Carano made their first public appearance on Tuesday to promote their comeback bout at Intuit Dome, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s sparkling new arena.
While Carano expressed gratitude and excitement about her first fight in 17 years, the ever-feisty Rousey sees the bout as the opening strike in an attempt to challenge the UFC “monolith” for dominance in the sport.
“This is the biggest fight in MMA right now,” Rousey said. “There are no two people in this sport with more international name recognition than me and Gina — except Conor (McGregor), but no one is going to sanction that. This isn’t a charity card. This isn’t a throwback, nostalgia card. This is the biggest fight in the sport right now, and it needed to happen now. This is fate between us. We have been on a collision course ever since I sat on a couch watching her on TV, just in complete awe what this woman was doing.”
Both fighters were pioneers in the nascent days of women’s MMA. Carano was the sport’s biggest early television star in the 2000s — and Rousey said she became aware of the sport by watching Carano, eventually picking it up and honing the talent that single-handedly persuaded the UFC to create women’s divisions in the 2010s.
But the sport accelerated past the MMA icons, who both moved on to entertainment careers after their star power appeared to exceed their cage abilities. Carano, who turns 44 next month, hasn’t fought at all since 2009, while the 39-year-old Rousey last competed in 2016 before having two children.
Both fighters say they had never fully given up on MMA, and this bout was too tantalizing to pass up.
“We only get to live once, and this makes me feel so alive,” said Carano, who also revealed for the first time that she has married her longtime partner, muay thai fighter Kevin Ross. “It’s pretty incredible and surreal to be here today. It’s healing. It’s exciting. It’s everything I could have hoped for. I didn’t know I needed this so bad.”
Rousey and Carano have finally decided to return for a fight that’s been anticipated and predicted for many years, despite their long career detours.
Carano said that while she never formally retired, she was persuaded to return after lengthy conversations with Rousey, who was nine months pregnant when she initially proposed the bout in December 2024. Rousey had no interest in fighting for several years while focused on professional wrestling and her family with former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, but she got the itch after helping her coach in judo training.
Rousey said she retired a decade ago not because of back-to-back losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, but because of neurological issues “that I didn’t really have any clarity about, and it just hurt to be around (the sport).”
Carano also said she has been through several years of medical problems before feeling good enough recently to entertain a return to fighting.
“We both need to rewrite our own endings together,” Rousey said. “So I reached out to her, and it’s been such a journey to get here. So many obstacles. So many people tried to get between us. We went from barely knowing each other to being like, ‘You know what? We’re going to fight each other.’”
As to those obstacles, Rousey sharply criticized the UFC for a financial offer that she says was much smaller than what they’ll get from Netflix and Jake Paul’s promotional company.
Rousey initially wanted to make her comeback with MMA’s dominant promotion on its final pay-per-view card, but she sees the UFC’s offer as part of a corporate sickness in the company for which she made untold millions.
Rousey said she still loves UFC President Dana White, but the promotion’s corporate overlords have strangled fighter pay. Rousey even joined the sport-wide criticism of the fights announced for the high-profile UFC show at the White House this summer.
“Now it’s become about changing the entire landscape of the sport and challenging the monolith that the UFC has become,” Rousey said. “Of course, I just wanted to do something fun. I don’t have to change the world, but that’s the way that we do it. I’m so happy that we’re here, and I’m so grateful that Gina trusted me.”
The Netflix show is being promoted by YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, but Rousey made it clear she is heavily involved in the promotional end. Paul hopes to promote many more MMA shows in the future, and Rousey said she hopes to fill MVP’s version of White’s role in the company.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou also will appear on the card, fighting 40-year-old Philipe Lins. The 39-year-old Ngannou left the Professional Fighters League last week, and he said MVP’s initial plan was for him to fight Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven before heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk made a deal to fight Verhoeven in Egypt.
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