Ronda Rousey crushes Gina Carano in MMA comeback fight

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Former UFC champ “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey swiftly defeated women’s mixed martial arts trailblazer Gina Carano via armbar submission in under 17 seconds in their long-awaited comeback bout in Los Angeles on Saturday.

In the first MMA bout streamed on Netflix, Rousey quickly took down Carano, wrestling her before locking on the armbar, forcing her opponent to immediately tap seconds into the first round.

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Rousey, 39, and Carano, 44, are widely regarded as two of the most important female fighters in the history of MMA. Both helped take the sport mainstream more than a decade ago.

Before Saturday, Carano had not stepped into a cage since 2009. After her MMA career, Carano took her talents to Hollywood to become an actor.

An Olympic bronze medallist in judo, Rousey retired from MMA in 2016 after losing back-to-back bouts to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.

The two returned to the hexagon cage on Saturday at the Intuit Dome with the promise of a huge payday that will see both fighters earn several million dollars.

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‘My hero’

After the bout, Rousey insisted her MMA return was a one-off and ruled out ant chance of fighting again. She also paid respect to Carano, stating she was the reason why she got into MMA.

“Gina is the only person who could have brought me back into MMA — she’s my hero,” said Rousey. “She changed my world, and we changed the world and I’ll never ever forget that or be able to pay that back enough. I’m so glad we finally go to share this moment.”

Rousey said she’s done with fighting, stating, “I want to have some more babies, got to get cooking.”

Carano, who hasn’t fought for 17 years, said she lost more than 100 pounds before the contest, which she called a victory in itself.

“I wanted that to last longer — I felt like I was so ready, I felt so good,” Carano said of her fight with Rousey. “But I haven’t been here for 17 years. I wanted to hit her.

“Right now, just getting in the cage was a victory; getting here after 17 years is a victory. Fighting a legend was a victory. I feel great, I just wanted to fight, and I didn’t get to do that,” she added.

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Undercard results

Mike Perry earned his first MMA victory since June 2020 by beating Nate Diaz in a two-round welterweight fight on the undercard of the Netflix card, which was booked by Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.

Perry managed to bloody Diaz, sending the latter to the ground after a flying knee in the second round. Referee Mike Beltran waved the fight off in agreement with Diaz’s team.

In another bout, former UFC heavyweight champion Frances Ngannou defeated Philipe Lin in the first round.

Robelis Despaigne knocked out Junior Dos Santos in the first round of their bout on the main card.

In his American debut, French lightweight Salahdine Parnasse beat Kenneth Cross after a first-round stoppage.

– With files from AFP

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