Greater than a decade after followers first debated the dream matchup, Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano are formally stepping again into the cage. The 2 pioneers of ladies’s MMA will come out of retirement for a historic superfight, reigniting one of many sport’s most talked-about rivalries.
“Been ready so lengthy to announce this: Me and Gina Carano are gonna throw down within the largest tremendous combat in girls’s fight sport historical past!” Rousey mentioned in an announcement to ESPN. “And we’re partnering with the fighter-first promotion MVP in addition to the largest and baddest streamer on the planet Netflix. That is for all MMA followers previous, current and future. Extra to come back… rather more.”
Right here’s every little thing to know in regards to the fighters and the right way to watch their long-awaited showdown.
Who Is Ronda Rousey?
Rousey is a former UFC bantamweight champion and one of the vital influential athletes in girls’s MMA historical past. Earlier than coming into the Octagon, she made historical past on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, changing into the primary American lady to win an Olympic medal in judo (bronze). She transitioned to MMA shortly after and shortly rose to prominence in Strikeforce earlier than changing into the UFC’s inaugural girls’s bantamweight champion in 2012.
Rousey defended her title six occasions and have become identified for her dominance, significantly her signature armbar finishes, serving to carry girls’s MMA into the mainstream. After back-to-back losses in 2015 and 2016, she stepped away from the game. Rousey later joined WWE, the place she grew to become a multi-time girls’s champion and headlined WrestleMania, whereas additionally showing in movies equivalent to The Expendables 3 and Livid 7.
Who Is Gina Carano?
Carano is extensively thought to be one of many authentic faces of ladies’s combined martial arts. Competing professionally from 2006 to 2009, she fought in EliteXC and Strikeforce and helped draw mainstream consideration to the game at a time when girls’s MMA was nonetheless preventing for visibility. She compiled a 7-1 document earlier than dropping to Cris Cyborg in her remaining bout in 2009, after which she transitioned into performing.
Carano constructed a profitable Hollywood profession, starring in movies like Haywire, Quick & Livid 6 and Deadpooland later gained renewed fame as Cara Dune in The Mandalorian. Nevertheless, she was faraway from the Disney+ sequence in 2021 following controversial social media posts that sparked backlash and accusations of offensive and inflammatory rhetoric. Carano denied wrongdoing and later filed a lawsuit in opposition to Disney and Lucasfilm.
When Is the Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano Combat?
Rousey and Carano are set to fulfill within the ring on Might 16, 2026, on the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The bout can be sanctioned below unified MMA guidelines, contested at featherweight (145 lbs) over 5 rounds.
How Can I Watch the Rousey vs. Carano Combat?
The extremely anticipated matchup can be streamed dwell globally on Netflix, marking the streaming platform’s first dwell MMA occasion. Subscribers will have the ability to watch the combat in actual time as a part of their Netflix plan.