Gina Carano is a massive betting underdog going into Saturday’s fight with Ronda Rousey, but one retired UFC vet is going against the grain.
Carano hasn’t been in a pro MMA fight since 2009, while Rousey’s most recent bout took place in late 2016. The two women’s MMA pioneers will headline Most Valuable Promotion’s first MMA event inside the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. The event will be streamed live on Netflix.
During an edition of MMAFighting.com‘s “The Fighter vs. The Writer,” ex-UFC star Matt Brown admitted that he isn’t expecting much from the Rousey vs. Carano fight. Still, he believes Carano will be able to pull off the upset.
“I think it’s going to be an ugly fight for the most part,” Brown said. “Here’s why I’m going to go with Gina Carano — I think Gina’s naturally a little bit bigger than Ronda. I think during this down time, I don’t know either of them personally, but I’m going to assume just from the personalities that I know online and the media, that Carano probably attempted at least to stay in better shape. Where Ronda I think just quit training all together and was just out and now she’s coming back.”
Brown also admitted that he sides with Carano more as a person and has been put off by Rousey’s past comments about MMA fans and the media. Even with his possible bias, he feels Rousey’s game plan is easier to gauge than Carano’s.
“Lastly, Ronda is a lot more predictable. For one thing, she doesn’t go and shoot double legs. It’s going to be a judo style takedown, which is a little bit more predictable. She’s got to get in the clinch and try to attempt to throw. If Gina does some of the basic things, she should be able to mitigate that. With that said, it will probably be ugly as hell. Ugly as all hell. It’s going to be nothing to write home about. I’m going to go Carano and plus I’m a bigger fan of Carano, too, so maybe a little bit of bias there too.”
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