Ronda Rousey to combat Gina Carano in return to MMA

Former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will return to blended martial arts for the primary time in almost a decade when she faces fellow fight sports activities trailblazer Gina Carano on Could 16 on the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, Most Invaluable Promotions confirmed Tuesday to ESPN.

The blockbuster showdown between MMA legends will headline the primary skilled MMA occasion promoted by Jake Paul’s Most Invaluable Promotions and shall be streamed reside on Netflix.

Rousey and Carano will face one another at 145 kilos, and the combat shall be professionally sanctioned beneath the Unified Guidelines of MMA and contested over 5, 5-minute rounds utilizing 4-ounce gloves, inside a hexagon cage.

“Been ready so lengthy to announce this: Me and Gina Carano are going to throw down within the greatest tremendous combat in ladies’s fight sport historical past!” Rousey stated in a press release to ESPN. “And we’re partnering with the fighter-first promotion MVP in addition to the most important and baddest streamer on the planet Netflix. That is for all MMA followers previous, current and future. Extra to come back… way more.”

Rousey (12-2) was the primary American lady to win an Olympic medal in judo in 2008 and was the primary feminine fighter signed to the UFC after a stint in defunct MMA promotion Strikeforce as its final ladies’s bantamweight champion. She took the trade by storm, dominating the opposition upon her arrival in 2013 because the inaugural UFC ladies’s bantamweight champion, and nonetheless holds the UFC document for efficiently defending the title six consecutive occasions.

Rousey, 39, immediately grew to become a star and ushered in an period of ladies blended martial artists within the UFC. She ran roughshod over the opposition — behind her vaunted armbar end — from her skilled debut in 2011 to 2015, when 11 of her first 12 fights ended within the first spherical, with three consecutive opponents defeated in beneath a minute.

Rousey would ultimately be dethroned by Holly Holm in a surprising upset in 2015 and misplaced once more by knockout to Amanda Nunes in 2016, her final MMA combat. She would later retire from MMA and embark on a profitable profession in WWE from 2018 to 2022, turning into a three-time world champion. She’s additionally a New York Instances bestseller and appeared in each “The Quick & Livid” and “The Expendables” film franchises. She was inducted into the UFC Corridor of Fame in 2018.

“Ronda Rousey is a 1 of 1 athlete,” Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Most Invaluable Promotions instructed ESPN. “What different feminine has bought 50,000 plus tickets to an occasion and generated tens of millions of pay-per-views. She transcends fight sports activities and represents the greatness that each younger athlete hopes to realize. And her versus Gina Carano is the proper mixture to enthrall the plenty and really ship a world evening of MMA for all constituents.”

Carano (7-1) is widely known as a ladies’s MMA pioneer who enhanced the visibility of ladies within the sport as a competitor from 2006 to 2009. She confronted Cris Cyborg for the inaugural Strikeforce ladies’s 145-pound title in 2009 and misplaced by TKO in her closing MMA combat.

After her retirement, Carano, 43, transitioned into an performing profession, and appeared in movies reminiscent of “Haywire,” “Quick & Livid 6,” and “Deadpool” in addition to the TV collection “The Mandalorian.” She has lengthy teased a return to MMA and can finish her 17-year retirement in a dream bout.

“Ronda got here to me and stated there is just one individual she would make a comeback for and it has been her dream to make this combat occur between us,” Carano stated in a press release. “She thanked me for opening up doorways for her in her profession and was respectful in asking for this combat to occur. That is an honor. I consider I’ll stroll out of this combat with the win, and I anticipate it won’t come straightforward, which I welcome. That is as a lot for Ronda and as it’s for the followers and blended martial arts group. What a time to be alive.”

Rousey vs. Carano may have a kickoff information convention on March 5 at Intuit Dome. Extra MMA fights shall be added to the cardboard and introduced at a late date.

“MVP has at all times been pushed by disruption and delivering the most important moments in fight sports activities on a world scale, and right now we’re formally bringing that vitality to MMA for the primary time,” Paul and Bidarian stated. “Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano are the 2 most formative figures within the historical past of ladies’s MMA; they’re the icons who shattered the glass ceiling and helped construct the muse this sport stands on. MVP’s conviction in ladies’s boxing was pushed by the success achieved by Ronda Rousey, who was the most important star of the whole sport of MMA throughout her profession. Following the unprecedented success of our boxing partnership, we’re proving that MVP and Netflix can create blockbuster reside occasions in a number of sports activities that have interaction followers throughout generations. That is what we do.”