Ronda Rousey to fight Gina Carano in return to MMA

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 pioneer Gina Carano on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., Most Valuable Promotions confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.

The blockbuster showdown between MMA legends will headline the first professional MMA event promoted by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions and will stream live on Netflix.

Rousey and Carano will face off at 145 pounds, and the fight will be professionally sanctioned under the Unified Rules of MMA and contested over five 5-minute rounds wearing 4-ounce gloves, inside a hexagonal cage.

“I’ve waited so long to announce this: me and Gina Carano are going to engage in the biggest super fight in the history of women’s combat sports!” Rousey said in a statement to ESPN. “And we’re partnering with the promotion’s MVP Fighter First as well as the biggest, 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 the first woman to sign with the UFC after a stint in defunct MMA promotion Strikeforce as the last women’s bantamweight champion. She took the industry by storm, dominating opposition upon her arrival in 2013 as the first 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 female mixed martial artists in the UFC. She ran roughshod over opposition – behind her famous armbar – from her professional debut in 2011 until 2015, when 11 of her first 12 fights ended in the first round, with three consecutive opponents defeated in less than a minute.

Rousey would ultimately be dethroned by Holly Holm in a stunning upset in 2015 and would again lose by knockout to Amanda Nunes in 2016, Rousey’s final 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 is also a New York Times bestselling author and has appeared in The Fast & the Furious and The Expendables film franchises. She was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018.

“Ronda Rousey is a unique athlete,” Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, told ESPN. “What other woman has sold over 50,000 event tickets and generated millions of pay-per-views. She transcends combat sports and represents the greatness that every young athlete hopes to achieve. And her opposition to Gina Carano is the perfect combination to captivate the masses and truly deliver a global night of MMA for all constituents.”

Carano (7-1) is widely recognized as a pioneer in women’s MMA who raised the visibility of women in the sport as a competitor from 2006 to 2009. She faced Cris Cyborg for the first Strikeforce women’s 145-pound title in 2009 and lost by TKO in her last MMA fight.

After retiring, Carano, 43, embarked on an acting career and appeared in films such as “Haywire,” “Fast & Furious 6” and “Deadpool” as well as the TV series “The Mandalorian.” She has long considered a return to MMA and will end her 17-year retirement in a dream fight.

“Ronda came to me and told me there was only one person she would make a comeback for and that it was her dream to make this fight happen between us,” Carano said in a statement. “She thanked me for opening doors for her in her career and respectfully asked for this fight to happen. It’s an honor. I believe I will come out of this fight with victory, and I anticipate it won’t be easy, which I’m happy about. This is as much for Ronda and me as it is for the fans and the mixed martial arts community. What a time to be alive.”

Rousey vs. Carano will have a kickoff press conference on March 5 at Intuit Dome. Additional MMA fights will be added to the card and announced at a later date.

“MVP has always been driven by breaking 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,” said Paul and Bidarian. “Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano are the two most formative figures in the history of women’s MMA; they are the icons who broke the glass ceiling and helped build the foundation upon which the sport is built. MVP’s belief in women’s boxing was driven by the success achieved by Ronda Rousey, who was the biggest star in 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 across multiple sports that engage fans across generations. That’s what we do.

During an interview on “SportsCenter” Tuesday afternoon, Rousey said she initially contacted UFC president Dana White about the fight.

“I reached out to Dana and asked if he would be interested, and it didn’t really work out with the UFC, but it got us to today,” she said.