MMA<\/a> career. She insists she is headed into retirement after ending on a dominant victory.<\/p>\n\u201cI was hoping to come out as unscathed as possible,\u201d Rousey said. \u201cI didn\u2019t really want to hurt her. Luckily it was beautiful martial arts, that\u2019s what I think that was. It was art.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rousey (13-2) didn\u2019t waste an instant after the opening bell, immediately charging and tackling Carano. Rousey quickly moved into position and applied her famous finishing move, wrenching Carano\u2019s arm as the fight was stopped.<\/p>\n
Rousey won eight fights in less than a minute during her meteoric rise through MMA in the 2010s. When asked if she considered waiting a bit longer to go for the finish in this comeback fight after nearly a decade away, Rousey laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHell no,\u201d she said. \u201cMy husband and my kids are watching me. I don\u2019t want to put them through anything more than I have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carano, who hadn\u2019t fought in 17 years, was all smiles even after the swift end to one of the longest layoffs in pro sports history. Rousey and Carano hugged and shared warm words after the finish, raising each other\u2019s arms in victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted that to last longer,\u201d Carano said. \u201cI felt so ready. I\u2019ve never felt that good. But I haven\u2019t been here for 17 years \u2026 and I wanted to hit her.\u201d<\/p>\n
This improbable double comeback bout united two of the most important fighters from MMA\u2019s past two decades. Rousey became one of the world\u2019s most famous athletes as she won the first women\u2019s title in the UFC, which only began to promote women\u2019s MMA because of Rousey\u2019s undeniable talent and star power.<\/p>\n
Rousey first became interested in MMA because of Carano, whose athleticism and star power made her into a television headliner when the sport was still fighting for legitimacy and acceptance in the late 2000s. Rousey left the sport after consecutive losses, while Carano moved on to an acting career after taking her first loss.<\/p>\n
After having two children and settling into post-fighting life on her farm, Rousey seriously began to consider an MMA return last year. She immediately focused on a fight with Carano, whose career as an actor abruptly ended in 2021 with her series of controversial social media posts.<\/p>\n
Carano was happy to finally accept the comeback she had occasionally considered, saying she used her preparations as a way to overcome multiple health problems from recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting in here after 17 years was a victory,\u201d Carano said. \u201cFighting a legend was a victory. I feel great. But she trained. She had her game plan. I have so much love and respect for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show at Intuit Dome was the first live MMA event on Netflix, which is moving steadily into combat sports.<\/p>\n
Rousey had repeatedly said this will be her final fight, while Carano has said she doesn\u2019t know what the future holds. Afterward, Carano said she hasn\u2019t closed the door on another bout, and promoter Nakisa Bidarian said he would be eager to put Carano on another show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think 17 years [off] was a lot,\u201d Carano said. \u201c[Being] 44 is a lot. But I\u2019m going to go look at this. I didn\u2019t get anything out I expected to get in this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey stopped Gina Carano with her signature armbar just 17 seconds into the two fighters\u2019 double comeback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-676833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676833","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=676833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}