By becoming the first woman to win a fight in the UFC, Ronda Rousey cemented her status as the top competitor in all of WMMA, and solidified her role as its figurehead.
Before Rousey climbed to prominence there was another who acted as the face of WMMA—Gina Carano.
Carano left the sport in 2009 to take a shot at acting, exiting the game as one of the most accomplished women to have ever competed.
Though it’s hyperbole to claim Rousey and Carano competed in entirely different eras, the history of WMMA is remarkably brief. So in a sense, a fantasy matchup between the two of them renders a hypothetical clash between the past and present.
Here we will run with that old-guard vs. new-guard platitude, and examine how the action might play out had Carano and Rousey competed against one another.
Either woman has been designated an edge in each of the striking, takedowns and grappling areas of MMA. These edges compound to inform the likely winner of the pairing.