Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey will fight sanctioned MMA bout in May

Gina Carano is a pioneer of women’s mixed martial arts. Her last professional fight took place in 2009, four years before women began competing in the UFC.

Ronda Rousey was the UFC’s first female fighter, its first women’s bantamweight champion, and the first woman inducted into the Hall of Fame. His last professional MMA fight dates back to 2016.

The two MMA legends will return on May 15 to Intuit Dome for a fight that will be broadcast live around the world on Netflix. Tickets go on sale March 5.

“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 Tuesday morning. “…This goes out to all MMA fans past, present and future.”

The featherweight bout will be professionally sanctioned under the Unified Rules of MMA with five rounds of five minutes each. Fighters will use four-ounce gloves and compete in a hexagonal cage.

“It’s an honor,” Carano said in a statement. “I believe I will come out of this fight with victory and I anticipate it will not be easy, which I welcome. This is as much for Ronda and me as it is for the fans and the mixed martial arts community.”

Carano began 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 fight.

Since then, she has not fought and instead focuses on her acting career. After appearing in the first two seasons of “The Mandalorian” as Cara Dune, Carano sued Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm, alleging she was unfairly fired from the series and discriminated against because of the opinions she expressed on social media. The two sides settled the dispute 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 fights before retiring from the sport, then became a three-time winner in WWE 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 told me there was only one person she would make a comeback for and it was her dream to make this fight happen between us,” Carano said. “She thanked me for opening 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. This is also the first MMA fight promoted by MVP, founded by influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul and former UFC executive Nakisa Bidarian in 2021 and which has produced 30 live boxing events.

Paul has gone 12-2 (7 KOs) 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 of all time, peaking at 65 million concurrent streams with an estimated average minute audience of 108 million live viewers worldwide.

“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,” 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 broke the glass ceiling and helped build the foundation on which the sport is built.”