Carano addressed recent comments made by the former UFC champion
Cage comeback? Gina Carano responded to Ronda Rousey. © Ethan Miller / FilmMagic / Getty Images
Gina Carano has said she would be open to facing former UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey in a comeback bout for both women.
The pair are considered pioneers of female MMA, with Carano registering a 7-1 record before retiring in 2009 and Rousey carrying on the torch to become a huge crossover star and champion in the UFC who paved the way for the likes of modern greats Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko.
Rousey recently said that Carano was the only opponent she would make a comeback for. And when speaking to Fox News, Carano seemed open to the possible bout too.
“You know what? Just never put it past me,” Carano remarked.
“It could happen. It would be like, you know, six months from now, because I have a lot of stuff I need to do.
“But my fight really is with [what] I really want to create. I want to direct, I want to produce, I want to give Ronda Rousey a job in one of my movies, so maybe there is something we can do there,” added Carano, who has carved out a post-fighting acting career with appearances in box office smashes such as Fast and Furious 6 and Deadpool.
Carano claims that the UFC and its president Dana White once offered her $1 million to take on Rousey, who at the time was an undefeated bantamweight champion.
But with White jumping the gun and already talking in the media about the showdown being a done deal, Carano felt uncomfortable with his public pressure and the megafight fell apart.
Rousey put together a 12-2 record in the UFC that came to a close with a title-fight defeat to Nunes in late 2016.
Later becoming a mother and a WWE wrestling star, Rousey recently said there is “only one person I would come back for,” as reported by Bloody Elbow.
“I mean, I’ve said it a million times. It’s not like it’s something new but, for Gina man. Gina Carano,” she confirmed, in relation to the star of Disney’s ‘The Mandalorian’ series who was axed after a series of social media posts which liberals took issue with.
In the octagon, you would have to go back almost 13 years to find Carano’s most recent outing which was a Strikeforce featherweight championship loss to current Bellator ruler Cris Cyborg by TKO.
Given the popularity of the fighters, a meeting between Rousey and Carano would be an easy sell for White in the UFC, or any other promotion that picks it up.
Furthermore, Rousey made it clear that her callout was one of respect rather than malice or the arrogance that Rousey was sometimes accused of possessing too much of in her fighting days.
Rousey insisted that Carano was the reason why she got into fighting and showed her how it was a possibility for women to light up the pro ranks.
“I will always be forever grateful… and if she ever was like, ‘Ronda, I wanna fight you tomorrow at 205 pounds,’ like whatever the hell she’d want – I’m not saying she’s 205 pounds – if she wanted to come into my backyard and do the Rocky thing or, you know, ding, ding and we just do it in the backyard, I don’t care,” Rousey explained.
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“I will fight Gina wherever she wants and if she doesn’t want to, leave [that there].
“It’s a respect thing, not like a, ‘F**k you. I’m coming to get you.’ It’s just like, hey, if you ever wanna pull that card out, it’s there. I love her. Thank you Gina for everything you’ve done,” Rousey finished.
