{"id":36803,"date":"2026-02-17T22:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Rousey-initially-reached-out-to-UFC-regarding-Carano-fight-It-didnt-exactly-work-out-200162"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:09:15","slug":"rousey-initially-reached-out-to-ufc-regarding-carano-fight-it-didnt-exactly-work-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/rousey-initially-reached-out-to-ufc-regarding-carano-fight-it-didnt-exactly-work-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Rousey initially reached out to UFC regarding Carano fight: ‘It didn\u2019t exactly work out’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nRonda Rousey was the key figure behind bringing women into the
\nUFC. | Dave Mandel\/Sherdog.com<\/b><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

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While Ronda
\nRousey<\/a> essentially convinced Dana White to allow women to fight
\nin the Octagon more than a decade ago, she couldn\u2019t persuade the
\n
\nUFC<\/a> CEO to book a fight between her and Gina Carano<\/a>
\nin the world\u2019s largest mixed martial arts promotion in the present
\nday.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Most Valuable Promotions
\nannounced<\/a> that Rousey and Carano will square off in a
\nfeatherweight bout at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on May 16. The
\nfive-round contest will air on Netflix. According to the Olympic
\njudoka, the bout has been in the works for quite some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was nine months pregnant, and I saw a video of Gina Carano<\/a>
\ngiving an interview and she didn\u2019t look good,\u201d Rousey told ESPN<\/a>. \u201cShe gained an unhealthy amount of weight and my
\nfirst thought was, \u2018Oh my god, what can I do to help?\u2019 The reason
\nwhy I had that thought was because she\u2019s the one woman not only in
\nMMA that doesn\u2019t owe me a damn thing but that I owe immensely. I\u2019m
\nalways trying to look out what I could do for her.<\/p>\n

“Her family owns Caesar\u2019s Palace and Rebel Oil. There\u2019s nothing I
\ncould really do for her except for when I was in a similar spot,
\nwhen I was depressed and gave up on the world and inadvertently
\ngave up on myself. What I needed was a goal and something to
\nreignite my passion again. I always said that Gina is the one
\nperson I\u2019d come back to fight for. I thought, ‘She needs this. She
\nneeds this fight.’ The more that I thought about it, I thought, \u2018I
\nneed this. I need this fight.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When Rousey was at the peak of her powers in the UFC in 2014, White
\n
\nconfirmed that there were discussions<\/a> to bring Carano into the
\nLas Vegas-based promotion for a high-profile fight between the two
\nfemale stars. However, more than 10 years later, White and the UFC
\napparently weren\u2019t interested in revisiting that booking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reached out to Dana and asked if he would be interested in it,\u201d
\nRousey said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t exactly work out with the UFC, but it led
\nus to here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Rousey, it took some time to make the fight against
\nCarano a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been in the making since I was pregnant, which is over a
\nyear ago,\u201d Rousey said. \u201cIt took a long time to get us here\u2026 We
\nfought for this. We fought to fight each other. There were a lot of
\nobstacles along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her, if I have to go out there, and train you myself to
\nfight me, I will. We made it happen. We had to work together to
\novercome every obstacle to get here. It\u2019s really surreal because
\nit\u2019s been a secret for so long, I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m actually able
\nto talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Train Smarter, Not Harder<\/h2>\n

Rousey hasn\u2019t fought since stepping away from the UFC following a
\nloss to Amanda
\nNunes<\/a> in 2016. The former bantamweight queen sparked rumors of
\na comeback by posting a series of training videos in recent months
\nwhile stating that she was \u201cfinding my love\u201d for MMA again. \u201cRowdy\u201d
\nadmits that the approach is different than when she was one of the
\nUFC\u2019s biggest stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecovery is a lot more important. I may not have as much collagen
\nor cartilage as I had in the past,” Rousey said. “But I have more
\nknowledge than I ever have. I feel like it\u2019s my technique and my
\nwittiness that always set me apart. It\u2019s why whenever I get my
\nhands on somebody, they never get up again. I\u2019ve never been better
\nin that way. We had to kind of change training around, instead of
\ndoing multiple trainings a day, I just do one marathon training a
\nday, and I spend the rest of the day recovering. It\u2019s really hard
\nwarming up twice in a day when you\u2019ve had as many athletic careers
\nas myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as finding the right mindset to return to MMA, Rousey says
\nit isn\u2019t that difficult thanks to an athletic background that has
\nbeen filled with high-pressure situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to two Olympics. Nothing compares to that kind of
\npressure. To train your whole life for one day. Everything else
\njust kind of pales in comparison,\u201d Rousey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so funny, people who have never fought they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh it
\nmust be such a big deal getting punched in the face.\u2019 But when
\nyou\u2019re actually fighting, it\u2019s not like you have an opinion about
\nit. It\u2019s just an observation you have at the time. That\u2019s not
\nwhat\u2019s scary. I feel like the pressure of the situation, the result
\nis what really gives you anxiety, not the physical pain that could
\ncome out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n