{"id":672020,"date":"2026-05-15T06:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T06:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672020\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T06:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T06:23:10","slug":"how-rousey-and-carano-fought-ring-rust-with-saunas-red-light-therapy-and-brain-scans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672020\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rousey and Carano fought \u2018ring rust\u2019 with saunas, red light therapy and brain scans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usually, when \u2018ring rust\u2019 is mentioned around a fighter, it\u2019s in reference to a year \u2013 two at a push \u2013 away from competition.<\/p>\n

In the case of mixed martial artists Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey, who meet at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on Saturday<\/a> in Netflix\u2019s first live MMA broadcast, the rust has been gathering for far longer.<\/p>\n

UFC Hall of Famer, Rousey (12-2, 9 submissions, 3 KOs) last competed in MMA in 2016, when she was beaten by Amanda Nunes in 48 seconds. Her opponent, Carano (7-1, 1 submission, 3 KOs), a pioneer of women\u2019s MMA, last fought in 2009 when she suffered her first professional MMA defeat to Cris Cyborg in a headline event that was broadcast by a major national cable network (Showtime), putting women\u2019s MMA on the map for the first time.<\/p>\n

Few doubt the commercial appeal of pitting two of the sport\u2019s all-timers against each other, and organisers Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) will be thrilled at the interest in its first MMA card.<\/p>\n

But given their time out of the sport, and their ages (Rousey is 39, Carano 44), is there any risk attached to the event?<\/p>\n

Perhaps unsurprisingly, MVP has no concerns. \u201cI think the opposite, right?\u201d co-founder Nakisa Bidarian tells The Athletic. \u201cThey\u2019re fresh. They have no injuries. They haven\u2019t been through wars. There\u2019s nothing holding them back from putting on a tremendous performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone shares that optimism. \u201cRing rust is a real thing,\u201d says former UFC fighter turned MMA coach, John Wood, on a video call from Las Vegas. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re gonna get \u2018til we get actually in the cage in terms of how they feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood, who owns Syndicate MMA, one of the most successful mixed martial arts gyms in the world, has skin in the game \u2013 he\u2019s spent the last six months preparing Carano for her return to action, after he was approached by her husband, and former Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer, Kevin Ross about training her.<\/p>\n

Did he have any concerns given the length of time Carano had been out of the sport, and her age?<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure,\u201d says Wood. \u201cI had to get her on the mat, had to see where she was at mentally and physically. Obviously she\u2019s been out for a long time so the abuse of MMA wasn\u2019t there, but the abuse of life \u2013 getting older and going through all the things she\u2019s gone through \u2013 is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the case for both fighters.<\/p>\n

After Rousey stepped away from the UFC after her defeat to Nunes in 2016 she signed a full-time contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and continued her acting work by appearing in action film Mile 22. She also had two children.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Rousey released her autobiography Our Fight, in which she was critical of the WWE culture and working environment and also said she hid \u201cconcussions and neurological injuries\u201d<\/a> for years during her run as UFC bantamweight champion. In the same year, she apologised for having reposted a video nine years earlier that spread conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which killed 20 children and six staff members. She said it was \u201cthe single most regrettable decision of my life.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Carano left fight sports for the acting world, making appearances in Fast and Furious 6 and Deadpool, among other films. In 2018, she was cast in The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm\u2019s first live-action Star Wars television series, but was fired in 2021<\/a> for posting conspiracy theories and right-wing views, including an Instagram post that compared life as a Republican in the U.S. to being a Jew during the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Gina Carano has not fought since 2009 (Sarah Stier\/Getty Images for Netflix)<\/p>\n

In February 2024, she filed a lawsuit against Lucasfilm over her firing, alleging wrongful dismissal and sex discrimination. The suit was funded by Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX. The case was set to begin on September 25, 2025, but in August, Carano and Disney settled their dispute.<\/a><\/p>\n

Carano was lost in the fog of that lawsuit when she got the phone call from UFC president Dana White in December 2024 asking if she would be interested in a comeback fight against Rousey, who was nine months pregnant at the time.<\/p>\n

What drives a heavily pregnant woman to decide it\u2019s time to fight again? It might sound like the punchline to a bad joke, but in Rousey\u2019s case it was a \u201ccascade of events\u201d, starting with Mike Tyson\u2019s return to boxing in a fight against Jake Paul at the age of 58.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fight got more views than any fight had ever received\u201d Rousey tells The Athletic via video call. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t nostalgia bait, it wasn\u2019t a cash grab, it was something that people really wanted and were missing from combat sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not long afterwards, she saw Carano \u2013 the woman who paved the way for her to become one of UFC\u2019s biggest stars \u2013 being interviewed, and an idea started to form.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting in my office chair about to burst and I saw an interview with Gina. She had been cancelled a few years before and you could tell she was going through some tough times and had gained a really unhealthy amount of weight. I was looking at her and looking at myself and thinking, you know what? We should reclaim our bodily identities together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rousey\u2019s first call was to White. He was all-in on the idea (it later became clear the finances would not fit with the UFC\u2019s model, leading Rousey and Carano to team up with Paul\u2019s MVP) and put in the call to Carano, who saw it as an opportunity to focus on something positive amid her ongoing legal issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a lawsuit, you have that elephant in the room with you every day you wake up,\u201d Carano tells The Athletic. \u201cIt\u2019s all-consuming. To think about something else besides the last couple of years and besides this lawsuit, I was like, yes, this is something I want to focus on and embrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Carano in her last fight against Cris Cyborg (left) in 2009 (Jon Kopaloff\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

She had already lost around 20 pounds after finding out she was pre-diabetic, but still had a way to go before she would be in fighting shape. The pair agreed on the end of 2025 as a potential date.<\/p>\n

While Carano\u2019s training journey began with what Wood calls a \u201cpre-camp camp, to get back in shape to start camp\u201d, Rousey\u2019s started with a visit to leading neurologist Dr Charles Bernick, on White\u2019s suggestion. The former UFC champion had been prepared to return to the cage with the same mindset she\u2019d taken into every fight previously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just gonna have to win without getting touched,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s how I walked into every fight, because I\u2019ve been dealing with these limitations my entire career.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says these include temporary vision loss, brain fog and lack of depth perception that would accompany strikes to the head. She had always attributed them to symptoms of concussion but Dr Bernick gave her an alternative explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thinks that these head impacts and bright lights are actually setting off migraines. And what I am experiencing are not concussion symptoms but migraine aura (warning signs of an impending migraine attack).\u201d<\/p>\n

They started experimenting with different types of medication, mixing them with sparring sessions to gauge their effect on Rousey\u2019s symptoms. Eventually, they found a preventative medication, approved by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), that works. Rousey says it has been life-changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been playing a game of zero errors for so long, which is why I felt like I had to end my fights so quickly (9 of her 12 professional MMA victories finished in the first 70 seconds),\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s really freeing in a way, but I still have to be careful \u2013 I can\u2019t just walk out and get my bell rung. I have to go out there with the same level of intensity and try to finish this the soonest that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CSAC follows Association of Ringside Physicians recommendations for regulating fighters over the age of 40, which include a magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, electrocardiogram (EKG, checking the heart for rhythm, rate, and structural abnormalities), cardiac testing, an exercise stress echocardiogram, neurocognitive testing, blood work, metabolic panel and ophthalmologic eye exam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot,\u201d says Wood. \u201cEvery day she\u2019s like, \u2018They want to hear my heart. They want to look at this. They want to test my pee.\u2019 They\u2019ve been running her through the ringer and making sure that she\u2019s healthy and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what the biggest changes have been in their fight camps this time compared to the last time they fought, Rousey and Carano both reply (separately) with one word: recovery.<\/p>\n

For Rousey, that looks like doing one \u201csuper-long marathon training session\u201d in the morning as opposed to two a day, and spending the rest of the day working on recovery, which looks like using the sauna, cold plunge and hyperbaric oxygen chamber (this involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, increasing the amount of oxygen that reaches the body\u2019s tissues and accelerating the recovery process).<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to almost put as much effort into recovery as I do into training now that I\u2019m older,\u201d says Rousey.<\/p>\n

When Carano last trained like an athlete, few of these recovery protocols were in place for fighters. And it was only when she hit a wall during training for this fight that she realised how much she needed them. \u201cI was breaking down,\u201d she says, \u201churting really bad. And then I started changing up the recovery and that was a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n

She lists saunas, cold plunges and red light therapy as key but says a change in her approach to nutrition has also been crucial. For much of her weight-loss journey she avoided carbohydrates, believing them to be \u201cthe bad guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when she got back into training she realised how valuable they were to performance. \u201cYou actually can really utilize carbs right before your workout to have a better performance\u201d she says. \u201cI learned that a little bit late, so I suffered for the last year and a half. Now I\u2019ve incorporated eating carbs before my workouts and it\u2019s a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood has trained fighters of all ages and says that the biggest difference in training those of a more advanced age (particularly over 40) is injuries. \u201cAfter 40, things start going sideways without really even doing much,\u201d he says. \u201cYou sneeze and you throw your back out; you fart, you can\u2019t straighten your head for a week. It\u2019s just one of those things.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo a big part of this camp was making sure we do it right so no one gets injured. Getting to the fight after all these years is a big win in itself. But making sure that we\u2019re healthy and able to put a product out there in Gina that\u2019s actually capable of winning the fight, and I think that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the fighters have had time to build up to this fight. That means they\u2019ve been able to take an extra day off when it was needed instead of pushing through to the point of injury. But as fight night approached, Wood says it was time to take the training wheels off and see what was left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese last two weeks, we said, \u2018I want you to go as hard as you can with this, dude.\u2019 I wanted her to feel like, here we go; this is a fight. Blow it all out. Go one round and just give me everything you got. I want you to throw up at the end of that round, just to get that feeling of, holy shit, this is how it feels. We\u2019ve been testing and playing with different things mentally, physically, and she\u2019s passed with flying colors. We\u2019re ready for a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In answer to those questioning the quality of the action they might see on Saturday, Wood simply points to the condition of former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson when he fought Paul in 2025. \u201cI can tell you, these ladies are in much better shape than that, hands down. These girls, honestly, they\u2019re gonna shock a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeling ready physically is one thing. But how can you prepare for stepping back into violence? After so long away from physical combat, how do you ready the mind for staring into the eyes of someone who is there to hurt you?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard enough, says Wood, for those who do it regularly. \u201cIt is the biggest, most stressful thing that anyone in any sport, in any profession can do. You\u2019re locked in a cage with another human, that wants to beat the s*** out of you, embarrass you in front of millions of people. And you have to be OK with it. Everybody feels the same thing. Everybody is scared s***less. It is how we deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Ronda Rousey is determined to prove her competitive instincts are as sharp as ever (Sarah Stier\/Getty Images for Netflix)<\/p>\n

Rousey, for her part, has no fears on that score. \u201cI\u2019ve been in high-pressure situations my entire life,\u201d she says. \u201cNothing will ever compare to the pressure of competing in an Olympic Games at the age of 17, when you\u2019ve trained your entire life to try and make all that work pay off in one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd since I stepped out of MMA, I\u2019ve been in pro wrestling and headlining WrestleMania. I have so many reps doing those kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carano points out that she has been through her own battles. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve fought giants. The physical pain does not compare to the heartbreak of being hurt in your business or your career being taken from you.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I have a different perspective. I\u2019m embracing the physical; I actually look forward to it. I\u2019d rather take the physical pain than the other pain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Usually, when \u2018ring rust\u2019 is mentioned around a fighter, it\u2019s in reference to a year \u2013 two at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,2331,786,11880,10280,785,10018,85,3276],"class_list":["post-672020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-culture","tag-fighting","tag-global-sports","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-mma","tag-olympics","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}