Former UFC champion and WWE star Ronda Rousey has officially confirmed she is coming back to MMA. But before locking in her return, she revealed that trying to make it happen with the UFC didn’t work out.
On Tuesday, Rousey announced she will fight fellow MMA fighter Gina Carano on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The fight will be at 145 pounds, scheduled for five five-minute rounds inside a hexagon cage. The event will be promoted by Most Valuable Promotions (MVP). It will also stream live on Netflix.
Ronda Rousey Says UFC Declined Proposed Comeback Fight With Gina Carano
Many fans had wondered for years if Rousey would ever return to the UFC after retiring in 2016. While that didn’t happen, her comeback has materialized in slightly different fashion.
In an interview with ESPN MMA, Rousey explained that her return is deeply personal. While she was nine months pregnant, she saw an interview with Carano and felt moved to reach out to her.
“I was nine months pregnant and I saw a video of Gina Carano giving an interview and she didn’t look good. She gained like an unhealthy amount of weight. And my first thought was like, ‘Oh my God, what can I do? What can I do to help?’ And the reason why I had that thought was because she’s the one woman not only in MMA that doesn’t owe me a damn thing, but that I owe immensely,” Rousey said.
Ronda Rousey admitted that she wanted to uplift Carano. She has always spoken highly of Carano and credits her as one of the women who helped open doors in MMA.
“I always said that Gina is the one person I would come back to fight for. And I thought, you know what? She needs this. She needs this fight. And the more that I thought about it, I was like, ‘I need this. I really need this fight,” she added.
Rousey shared that she first contacted UFC president Dana White to see if the fight could happen in the promotion.
“I reached out to Dana and asked him if he would be interested in it. And it didn’t exactly work out with the UFC, but it led us to here today,” Rousey said.
Even though a deal wasn’t struck, those talks eventually led to this new opportunity with MVP.
Rousey hasn’t fought in MMA since losing to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in December 2016. Before that, she emerged as one of the sport’s biggest stars. The UFC later inducted her into the Hall of Fame in 2018. She also went on to have a successful run in WWE. Rousey has previously spoken about health concerns, including possible brain trauma from her fighting days.
Carano, on the other hand, hasn’t competed in MMA since 2009, choosing instead to focus on her acting career.
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