A number of storylines converged late Saturday night, as Ronda Rousey (12-2) clashed with Gina Carano (7-1) in the Octagon. The featherweight bout, streamed live on Netflix from LA’s Intuit Dome, marked the first showdown between the two most influential female fighters in MMA history; the first MMA fight for Netflix, courtesy of Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions; and the latest stunt for the streamer featuring pugilists well past their prime (Rousey, 39, hasn’t fought since 2016; Carano, who is 44, last fought in 2009, and claims she lost 100 pounds to make the 145-pound limit). Plus, both featured as toughs in “Fast & Furious” films, with Carano appearing in “Fast & Furious 6” and Rousey swinging at Michelle Rodriguez in “Furious 7.”
Then there are the social media posts.
Back in 2013, which feels like a lifetime ago, Rousey posted a conspiracy-riddled video to her Twitter account claiming that the 26 victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — 20 young children and 6 adult staffers — were paid actors, calling it “must-watch.” Following a wave of backlash, Rousey deleted the video and wrote, “Asking questions and doing research is more patriotic than blindly accepting what you’re told.” She finally apologized for the post over a decade later, in 2024, saying she “regretted it every day of my life.”
Carano’s post came in February 2021. In the throes of the COVID pandemic, she posted an image to Instagram of Jews being massacred during the Lviv pogroms in 1941 along with the caption:
Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors … even by children. Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?
The post compared the plight of Jews during the Holocaust to modern-day American conservatives, thus minimizing the Holocaust. She’d also fired off a number of posts mocking people for wearing face masks during the pandemic and questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election. Disney/Lucasfilm subsequently fired her from their Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” calling her posts “denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” Carano sued — in a lawsuit backed by Elon Musk — and eventually settled with the House of Mouse.
And lastly, their differing political allegiances. Carano is firmly in the MAGA camp. On top of being a 2020 election conspiracy theorist, she spoke at a Trump rally in Las Vegas in October 2024 and accused the Democratic Party of trying to “destroy us.” Rousey, for her part, got into a public back-and-forth with Trump after the former reality TV host claimed she was a fan of his on the campaign trail in 2015. This prompted Rousey to distance herself from Trump, saying, “I mean, I wouldn’t vote for him. I just wouldn’t trust the guy with running my country, that’s all. I don’t want a reality TV star running my country.” She followed that up by endorsing Bernie Sanders for president. So Trump, the prince of petty, gleefully celebrated her UFC loss to Holly Holm:
Back to that fight Saturday night.
Festivities kicked off with a trailer narrated by Uma Thurman (objectively cool), and a handful of mostly uncompetitive undercard bouts (save the always game and bloodied Nate Diaz), the crowd loudly booing MVP promoter Jake Paul at his own event, and the graphic getting Rousey’s age wrong, Rousey and Carano emerged minutes before midnight EST.
The biggest issue with these Netflix stunt-fights, aside from the age and condition of the fighters, is that the main event takes forever to start. This is due to too many undercard fights, Netflix airing ads during their live events, as well as the streamer milking the whole endeavor for as long as possible to increase their viewership numbers, since Netflix measures its viewership by views multiplied by hours watched. On top of all that, these Netflix fights have been accused of fixing, like the catastrophic Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match in November 2024 where Tyson appeared to be pulling punches.
Carano, who grew up in Las Vegas, came out to “Mr. Brightside” by Vegas’ own The Killers, while Rousey chose Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.” The fight actually began at 12:05 a.m. EST — late even by Netflix standards — with Rousey immediately taking down Carano and pinning her with an armbar. A whole bunch of sturm and drang for a fight that lasted a grand total of 17 seconds. At least those of us viewing at home didn’t shell out big money (and wait in LA traffic) to see this joke of a match in person.
The two had an emotional embrace after the fight, which was far more entertaining than the fight itself. And during their post-fight interviews, Rousey called Carano her “fucking hero,” which was a nice bit of sportsmanship, and announced that this was her last fight and she was looking forward to having “more fucking babies.” Carano, meanwhile, called it “a victory” just getting back in the ring.
Rousey vs. Carano served as a precursor of sorts to UFC Freedom 250, taking place June 14 on the White House’s South Lawn. That this is only the second craziest thing to happen at the White House under Trump speaks volumes.