Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano has sparked a lot of debate on whether it was a legit fight or not, and recently WWE Hall of Famer Booker T has shared his own opinions on it.
According to Booker, the Netflix fight felt more like a “work shoot” than a real MMA contest. He questioned some of the moves exchanged between the fighters, the booking of the fight itself, and also questioned Rousey’s choice of opponent.
Why Booker T Has Doubts About Ronda Rousey’s Netflix Fight
Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T shared his thoughts on Rousey’s 17-second win over Carano. After watching the fight again, he said the ending looked suspicious because of how quickly everything wrapped up once the fight went to the ground.
Booker T admitted the opening takedown looked real, but he felt the action afterward seemed too cooperative.
“It was a work shoot. That thing wasn’t real. It was real as far as the takedown goes, but everything after that, it was like, ‘I’m ready, let’s go home.’ It was one it was one of those type of deals. If you go back and watch it and study it, you’re gonna come to the same consensus that I’m saying right now. that was that that was that was not fair. That fight was not fair for the people, for Ronda Rousey to come back, and literally that was like the biggest heist I’ve ever seen,” Booker said.
Terms like “work shoot” usually refer to something that mixes real action with scripted elements.
Booker also questioned why people believed Carano had a serious chance of winning after being away from MMA for so long.
“If you have not had a fight, you can have fought in your younger days, you retired, you haven’t fought for 17 years, it’s not going to be the same….And for anyone to think for a moment that Gina Carano had a chance at going out there and winning that fight after being out of the cage for 17 years and 100 pounds that she had to lose, come on, let’s be real here,” Booker T explained.
He also argued that if Rousey wanted to prove herself in a comeback, she should have fought someone still active in MMA.
“That’s why this fight had no meaning at all. It was a fight she couldn’t lose in any way shape or form the way she wanted. A true champion should not go out like that,” he said.
However, co-host Brad Gilmore disagreed with Booker T by pointing out that Rousey had many quick wins during her UFC prime. He also said fans may have expected a longer fight because of the hype around Carano’s return, but Rousey ending things quickly was not unusual for her style.
Even with that argument, Booker stood by his opinion. He said Rousey should have faced a tougher and more active opponent if she truly wanted to prove herself.
However, both Booker T and Gilmore felt that a rematch between Rousey and Holly Holm would have been far more exciting.
Read More: TKO’s Mark Shapiro Says Ronda Rousey Fight Wasn’t Good for Netflix
