After a 12-0 run, and 8 straight title wins, Ronda Rousey suffered two straight defeats, and retired after UFC 207. Since then she’s went on to become the 2 time and current WWE women’s champion, and seemingly retired from mma. But she did reveal that she would return for one final mma bout. Here it is from the former champions mouth, as told to Kurt Angle on his podcast.
“I mean, I’ve said it a million times. It’s not like it’s something new, but, for Gina, man. Gina Carano, she’s the reason why I got into fighting, she’s the reason why I knew it was a possibility. I will always be forever grateful…and if she ever was like, ‘Ronda, I wanna fight you tomorrow at 205 pounds,’ like whatever the hell she’d want – I’m not saying she’s 205 pounds – if she wanted to come into my backyard and do the Rocky thing or, you know, ding, ding and we just do it in the backyard, I don’t care.”
“I will fight Gina wherever she wants and if she doesn’t want to forever, leave (that there). It’s a respect thing, not like a, ‘f*ck you. I’m not coming to get you’. It’s just like hey, if you ever wanna pull that card out, it’s there. I love her. Thank you, Gina, for everything you’ve done.”
Gina Carano was the original face of women’s mma, a stunning beauty who went on an undefeated run and became the first woman to fight for a major women’s title in America. Unluckily for her, it was against Cyborg Justino. Gina retired afterwards and had had a pretty successful career in cinema, appearing in franchises like Deadpool, The mandalorian and Fast and Furious.
Ronda is the biggest star in women’s mma history, grossing over a million PPV buys several times. Gina was the original female draw, never appearing on PPV but always getting good ratings for Strikeforce. This could still be a box office worthy fight, especially since both have went on to become famous in other ways since leaving mma.
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