Gina Carano is a trailblazer in women’s mixed martial arts. Her final professional fight was in 2009, four years before women began competing in UFC.
Ronda Rousey was UFC’s first female fighter, its first women’s bantamweight champion and the first woman inducted into its Hall of Fame. Her final professional MMA fight was in 2016.
The two MMA legends will come back May 15 at Intuit Dome for a fight that will stream live globally on Netflix. Tickets are on sale March 5.
“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 Tuesday morning. “… This is for all MMA fans past, present and future.”
The featherweight bout will be professionally sanctioned under the Unified Rules of MMA with five rounds at 5 minutes each. The fighters will use 4-ounce gloves and will face off inside a hexagon cage.
“This is an honor,” Carano said in a statement. “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.”
Carano started her fighting career in Muay Thai (12-1-1) before transitioning to MMA. She won her first seven fights (three by knockout, one by submission) before losing to Cris Cyborg by technical knockout (4:59) in Strikeforce’s first women’s championship bout.
She hasn’t fought since, instead focusing on her acting career. After appearing in the first two seasons of “The Mandalorian” as the character Cara Dune, Carano sued Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm, alleging she had been wrongfully terminated from the show and discriminated against because of views she expressed on social media posts. The two sides settled the lawsuit in August.
Rousey won a bronze medal in judo at the 2008 Beijing Olympics before becoming an MMA superstar. She won six UFC women’s bantamweight title bouts before retiring from the sport, then became a WWE triple-crown winner before stepping away from professional wrestling in 2023. She published a graphic novel last year.
It turns out both women weren’t entirely done with MMA.
“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. “She thanked me for opening up doors for her in her career and was respectful in asking for this fight to happen.”
The fight will be Netflix’s first live MMA event. It is also the first MMA bout to be promoted by MVP, which was founded by influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul and former UFC executive Nakisa Bidarian in 2021 and has produced 30 live boxing events.
Paul has gone 12-2 (seven knockouts) since becoming a professional boxer in 2020. His December 2024 unanimous-decision victory over Mike Tyson was Netflix’s first live boxing event. It is said to be the most-streamed sporting event ever, peaking at 65 million concurrent streams with an estimated average minute audience of 108 million live viewers worldwide.
“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 in a statement. “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.”
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