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Andreas Hale
Multiple Authors
Former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will return to mixed martial arts for the first time in nearly a decade when she faces fellow combat sports trailblazer Gina Carano on May 16 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, Most Valuable Promotions confirmed Tuesday to ESPN.
The blockbuster showdown between MMA legends will headline the first professional MMA event promoted by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions and will be streamed live on Netflix.
Rousey and Carano will face each other at 145 pounds, and the fight will be professionally sanctioned under the Unified Rules of MMA and contested over five 5-minute rounds using 4-ounce gloves, inside a hexagon cage.
“Been waiting so long to announce this: Me and Gina Carano are gonna throw down in the biggest super fight in women’s combat sport history!” Rousey said in a statement to ESPN. “And we’re partnering with the fighter-first promotion MVP as well as the biggest and baddest streamer on the planet Netflix. This is for all MMA fans past, present and future. More to come… much more.”
Rousey (12-2) was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo in 2008 and was the first woman signed to the UFC after a stint in defunct MMA promotion Strikeforce as its last women’s bantamweight champion. She took the industry by storm, dominating the opposition upon her arrival in 2013 as the inaugural UFC women’s bantamweight champion, and still holds the UFC record for successfully defending the title six consecutive times.
Rousey, 39, instantly became a star and ushered in an era of women mixed martial artists in the UFC. She ran roughshod over the opposition — behind her vaunted armbar finish — from her professional debut in 2011 to 2015, when 11 of her first 12 fights ended in the first round, with three consecutive opponents defeated in under a minute.
Rousey would eventually be dethroned by Holly Holm in a stunning upset in 2015 and lost again by knockout to Amanda Nunes in 2016, Rousey’s last MMA fight. She would later retire from MMA and embark on a successful career in WWE from 2018 to 2022, becoming a three-time world champion. She’s also a New York Times bestselling author and appeared in The Fast & the Furious and The Expendables movie franchises. She was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018.
“Ronda Rousey is a 1-of-1 athlete,” Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions said to ESPN. “What other female has sold 50,000-plus tickets to an event and generated millions of pay-per-views. She transcends combat sports and represents the greatness that every young athlete hopes to achieve. And her versus Gina Carano is the perfect combination to enthrall the masses and truly deliver a global night of MMA for all constituents.”
Carano (7-1) is widely recognized as a women’s MMA pioneer who enhanced the visibility of women in the sport as a competitor from 2006 to 2009. She faced Cris Cyborg for the inaugural Strikeforce women’s 145-pound title in 2009 and lost by TKO in her final MMA fight.
After her retirement, Carano, 43, transitioned into an acting career, and she has appeared in films such as “Haywire,” “Fast & Furious 6” and “Deadpool” as well as the TV series “The Mandalorian.” She has long teased a return to MMA and will end her 17-year retirement in a dream bout.
“Ronda came to me and said there is only one person she would make a comeback for and it has been her dream to make this fight happen between us,” Carano said in a statement. “She thanked me for opening up doors for her in her career and was respectful in asking for this fight to happen. This is an honor. I believe I will walk out of this fight with the win, and I anticipate it will not come easy, which I welcome. This is as much for Ronda and me as it is for the fans and mixed martial arts community. What a time to be alive.”
Rousey vs. Carano will have a kickoff news conference March 5 at Intuit Dome. More MMA fights will be added to the card and announced at a later date.
“MVP has always been driven by disruption and delivering the biggest moments in combat sports on a global scale, and today we are officially bringing that energy to MMA for the first time,” Paul and Bidarian said. “Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano are the two most formative figures in the history of women’s MMA; they are the icons who shattered the glass ceiling and helped build the foundation this sport stands on. MVP’s conviction in women’s boxing was driven by the success achieved by Ronda Rousey, who was the biggest star of the entire sport of MMA during her career. Following the unprecedented success of our boxing partnership, we are proving that MVP and Netflix can create blockbuster live events in multiple sports that engage fans across generations. This is what we do.”
During an interview on “SportsCenter” Tuesday afternoon, Rousey said that she had initially approached UFC president Dana White about the fight.
“I reached out to Dana and asked him if he would be interested in it, and it didn’t exactly work out with the UFC, but it led us here to today,” she said.