Tag: Gina Carano

Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano: Why the UFC Is Right to Book the Fight

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano seem to be on a collision course.
UFC President Dana White has been adamant that Rousey vs. Carano is the next planned bout for Rousey, but negotiations are complicated.
This proposed fight has been polarizing. Some like th…

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano seem to be on a collision course.

UFC President Dana White has been adamant that Rousey vs. Carano is the next planned bout for Rousey, but negotiations are complicated.

This proposed fight has been polarizing. Some like the bout, while others think it is a farce. Regardless, the UFC is 100 percent right to try to make this fight happen. It does more good than harm.

Carano has been away from MMA since August of 2009. Sure. But you must look beyond the inactivity to realize why this fight makes sense.

The women’s bantamweight division is thin, and its top contender, Cat Zingano, is coming off a serious knee injury. The options for Rousey’s next opponent are very slim. Rousey is a mainstream crossover star, and the UFC will want to capitalize on that.

Rousey has defeated the other four women in the Top Five. The interest for any of those rematches is low.

Carano is a fresh challenger. Would she do any better?

While Carano has been away from the cage in active competition for five years, we do not know how much she has been training on her own during this time. It is conceivable that she has improved her overall game in that time, but let’s focus on what we know.

She is a talented striker who went 7-1 in her short career. Her lone loss was at 145 pounds against the ever-tough Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino—a fight in which Carano mounted Cyborg on the canvas. However, her inexperience on the ground didn’t allow her to take full advantage of the position.

She lost to Cyborg. That is not a bad loss.

All of her seven other fights were victories.

She battled tough veterans such as Rosi Sexton, Kaitlin Young, Tonya Evinger and Julie Kedzie. And she dominated all of those fights. She was the bigger fighter in all of those bouts, and she took control of the situation.

This is not a situation where Rousey would be taking on an unproven newcomer or a returning fighter with a less-than-stellar record. Carano was a solid fighter.

White recently provided one of the best points possible at the UFC Dublin media scrum that aired on UFC Fight Pass. White asked the media if Carano would be any less competitive than Rousey’s two most recent title defenses. Would she? No.

Sara McMann lasted 66 seconds, and Alexis Davis clocked in at 16 ticks of the clock.

Is Carano going to be less competitive than that against Rousey? It is hard to believe that could be possible.

The largest factor in why the UFC is right to make this fight is that combat sports is about putting on fights that sell, and Carano vs. Rousey sells.

No matter how you slice it, the fight is interesting. It will draw interest to whatever fight card it is on. It brings more eyes to the sport and more eyes to women’s MMA.

That is what the UFC and the sport need.

Is Carano deserving of the fight? Certainly not over some of the active fighters already in the division, but none of those fights are one-tenth as intriguing or entertaining.

MMA is not purely sport. It is part spectacle. It has to be.

The sooner fans embrace the notion that sometimes the spectacle outweighs the sport, the better. And the potential bout between Carano and Rousey certainly tips the scale in favor of making the fight.

This bout will give Zingano time to knock off the dust, Holly Holm to debut and the other fighters in the division to gather more interest.

It is a good fight for the entire division.

The UFC has every right to put Rousey in a fight that the vast majority of fans will care about, and this is it.

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Dana White on Gina Carano: “It’s Complicated”


(Gina Carano prepares for a showdown with Ronda Rousey by developing the Rouseybuster Armor MK II. / Photo via Getty)

And no, Dana White is not talking about a Facebook relationship status. He’s referring to Zuffa’s current contract negotiations with Gina Carano, the former “Face of Women’s MMA.”

Not too long ago, White triumphantly announced that the UFC would sign Carano and book her in a fight against UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey. As the old saying goes, be wary of Dana White bearing promises. This boast, like almost every other thing Dana White has ever said since this fateful interview, turned out to be bullshit.

It turns out signing the fighter-turned-actress is harder than Uncle Dana anticipated.


(Gina Carano prepares for a showdown with Ronda Rousey by developing the Rouseybuster Armor MK II. / Photo via Getty)

And no, Dana White is not talking about a Facebook relationship status. He’s referring to Zuffa’s current contract negotiations with Gina Carano, the former “Face of Women’s MMA.”

Not too long ago, White triumphantly announced that the UFC would sign Carano and book her in a fight against UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey. As the old saying goes, be wary of Dana White bearing promises. This boast, like almost every other thing Dana White has ever said since this fateful interview, turned out to be bullshit.

It turns out signing the fighter-turned-actress is harder than Uncle Dana anticipated.

“It’s complicated,” White said at the UFC on FOX 12 post-fight presser. “It’s going very positive, but it’s complicated.” And that’s all he said about it.

It appears we won’t be getting Rousey-Carano, after all–at least not in 2014. While such a fight is dubious in terms of legitimacy (a fighter who hasn’t fought since 2009 earning a title shot despite coming off a loss), there’s little doubt it’d generate some much-needed heat for the UFC.

To be honest, a little heat is kind of necessary, especially for the women’s bantamweight division. Rousey crushing over-matched contenders with no name value is getting old fast. While it’s our belief that she’d destroy Carano pretty easily, it’s highly probable that Carano would generate more buzz and excitement than the likes of Alexis Davis and Cat Zingano can generate.

Until the UFC signs Carano, Holly Holm will have to suffice as Rousey’s next biggest potential opponent.

Dana White: Gina Carano Contract Talks ‘Complicated’

Gina Carano agreeing to terms and finally signing a UFC contract by the end of the week was optimistic at best.
Earlier in the week, UFC President Dana White was incredibly confident he would be able to hash out a contract with the former Strikeforce s…

Gina Carano agreeing to terms and finally signing a UFC contract by the end of the week was optimistic at best.

Earlier in the week, UFC President Dana White was incredibly confident he would be able to hash out a contract with the former Strikeforce star. There was even talk about one of the incentives in a contract being an immediate title shot against UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey.

Days had passed since White’s meeting with Carano without any news of a confirmed signing. At Saturday night’s UFC on Fox 12 post-fight press conference, White finally gave fans an update no one was particularly thrilled to hear: “It’s complicated. I’m very positive about it, but it’s complicated. I’m still working on it. That’s all I can say.”

Carano is widely considered to be the original face of women’s MMA. While Rousey helped put female participants on the mainstream map, it was Carano who started it all during her stint in Strikeforce.

Her featherweight title fight against Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino in 2009 was the first women’s fight to headline a major MMA fight card. Unfortunately for Carano, her 7-0 run as a professional fighter came to a decisive end in a first-round TKO loss to Justino that night.

While never officially retiring from fighting, Carano made the decision to step away from the sport and focus more on her Hollywood acting career after the loss.

Despite a near five-year hiatus, there is still plenty of interest among fans in seeing Carano return and compete in the UFC. Only time will tell if the UFC and Carano can finally come to an agreement.

We’ll just have to take White’s word that the situation is positive but complicated.

 

Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.

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Charting What the Next 12 Months Might Look Like for Ronda Rousey

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey continues to dominant her opponents, looking more unstoppable in each of her Octagon appearances. Her 16-second destruction of Alexis Davis was yet another example of the distance between the champio…

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey continues to dominant her opponents, looking more unstoppable in each of her Octagon appearances. Her 16-second destruction of Alexis Davis was yet another example of the distance between the champion and the rest of the division.

Just when it seemed she had cleared out most of the top contenders at 135 pounds, the UFC made moves to line up her next crop of opponents. It has finally come to terms with Holly Holm (subscription required), who is undefeated at 7-0 and has a professional boxing record of 33-2-3, and she will be debuting in the Octagon sometime this fall.

UFC President Dana White has also said recently that a Gina Carano signing is imminent and that Ronda will defend the title against Carano in December, should the deal get done. Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino is going to make her first cut to bantamweight in December, and a successful weight cut and performance in the Invicta cage would seemingly signal her movement to the UFC and a potential superfight with Rousey.

Add in the fact that the rightful No. 1 contender for the title, Cat Zingano, is making her return to action against Amanda Nunes at UFC 178 on September 27, and Rousey’s dance card starts to fill up pretty quickly.

 

Gina Carano

Most likely, Rousey’s next fight will be against Gina Carano. The fight keeps getting mentioned for December, but according to Newsday’s Mark La Monica, Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort will be headlining UFC 181 on December 6. UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis said on The MMA Hour this week that his title defense against Gilbert Melendez would also take place on December 6 in Las Vegas, so a third title fight at UFC 181 is unlikely.

Whether Rousey faces Carano at UFC 181 or UFC 182, she will be heavily favored to beat the former Strikeforce champion, who hasn’t fought since her 2009 loss to Cyborg.

 

Cat Zingano

It’s easy to forget that Zingano is undefeated in this sport at 8-0 and was originally supposed to be the person absorbing all of Rousey’s hate as her opposing coach on the 18th season of The Ultimate Fighter.

She was also supposed to get a title shot after her April 2013 TKO over Miesha Tate. If Zingano can defeat Amanda Nunes, she will have established herself again as the No. 1 contender and should face Rousey sometime in the first half of 2015, barring any injuries to either party in their next fights.

 

Cyborg

So if Ronda dispatches Gina, she would most likely have the next contender lined up for an early-to-mid 2015 defense. Cyborg’s first opponent at 135 pounds hasn’t been determined yet, and it is possible that even if she walks through the poor soul who agrees to face her, she may need one fight in the UFC before she gets to face Rousey.

It’s also possible that she gets a championship fight for her UFC debut, which seems likely. We may very well see the much sought-after fight between the two best female mixed martial artists of all time, if Rousey and Cyborg both continue their winning ways until this time next year.

The reason why we watch fights to begin with is because they are intriguing. Rousey facing the current group of bantamweights on the UFC roster isn’t intriguing, as she’s vanquished them all with near impunity thus far. A fight with Cyborg has the intrigue that is lacking from the other potential matchups for Rousey.

It’s no safe bet that Rousey would be able to dominate Cyborg the way she has her opponents up until this point, and we truly won’t know what will happen until we see it. These two may even fight to a trilogy, if one doesn’t thoroughly dominate the other in one or two fights.

 

Holly Holm

The Preacher’s Daughter has perhaps the best striking acumen on the women’s side of the sport. She’s a former professional boxer and has kickboxed as well. She has lite up her opposition with an impressive arsenal of punches and kicks that would send even the most bricked-up female bantamweights to the mat.

I think Holm is going to run roughshod over the division in a similar way that Rousey has with her Olympic-level judo and improving striking game. It’s a matter of when, not if, Holm fights for the title, and she will most likely have strung together enough wins to secure a title shot against Rousey or her usurper sometime toward the end of 2015.

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Holly Holm Has No Problem with Gina Carano Getting Immediate Title Shot

Undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight Holly Holm (7-0) has no problem with women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano getting an immediate title bout against Ronda Rousey despite being five years away from the cage. 
The former three-division boxing champ…

Undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight Holly Holm (7-0) has no problem with women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano getting an immediate title bout against Ronda Rousey despite being five years away from the cage. 

The former three-division boxing champion spoke her mind on Friday’s edition of ESPN.com’s The Weigh-in column:

Carano has been on the big show before, so she can handle the pressure. There are a lot of girls who have been working hard for a shot who might deserve it a little more than someone who has been out that long, but Carano has put a lot of time in before. She’s earned her spot in certain ways. Who am I to say Carano is undeserving of an opportunity? I’ll let the promoter make those decisions.

Holm, the most recent women’s bantamweight champion in the Texas-based Legacy Fighting Championships, was signed by the UFC earlier this month after months of negotiations. 

The Greg Jackson’s MMA product is 7-0 as a professional mixed martial artist and is considered one of the few real threats left for UFC champ Ronda Rousey due to her striking pedigree. 

However, fight fans will have to wait awhile for that matchup since UFC President Dana White has already stated that Holm will not receive an immediate title shot, per Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, Carano will, if the UFC can hammer out a deal sometime soon, per MMA Junkie. 

Carano hasn’t fought since August 2009, when she suffered a lopsided TKO loss at the hands of Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. 

That marked the only loss of her career, where she has competed as heavy as 150 pounds. 

Recently starring in action movies such as Haywire, Fast & Furious 6 and In the Blood, Carano has teased the idea of returning to the cage in recent months and appears to be following through on that notion now. 

In the event that the UFC signs Carano, is a championship showdown with Rousey the only fight that makes sense for her?

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Is MMA About to Enter a New Golden Age?


(Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

“It’s always darkest before it’s totally black.”-Mao Zedong (supposedly).

This quote aptly described MMA’s immediate future, or at least it seemed to until very recently. Card quality, fan interest, and–most importantly–numbers were all declining; 2014’s PPV buy ceiling of 350,000 was 2009’s floor. MMA was headed for a perplexing time when it was simultaneously bigger than ever but smaller than ever, when the fighters were more talented than ever but less popular than ever.

A series of fortunate events and new found circumstances can change all that. To make a Back to the Future reference, the horrific, Biff Tannen-owned Hill Valley that represented MMA’s future may well become the nice, stable Hill Valley in which George McFly is a successful fiction author and Marty McFly bangs his girlfriend in the back of a pickup truck. That is to say, MMA might be approaching a level of popularity, constancy and quality that many (including myself) didn’t think it was capable of reaching in the current climate.

What’s the reason for this cautious optimism?


(Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

“It’s always darkest before it’s totally black.”-Mao Zedong (supposedly).

This quote aptly described MMA’s immediate future, or at least it seemed to until very recently. Card quality, fan interest, and–most importantly–numbers were all declining; 2014′s PPV buy ceiling of 350,000 was 2009′s floor. MMA was headed for a perplexing time when it was simultaneously bigger than ever but smaller than ever, when the fighters were more talented than ever but less popular than ever.

A series of fortunate events and new found circumstances can change all that. To make a Back to the Future reference, the horrific, Biff Tannen-owned Hill Valley that represented MMA’s future may well become the nice, stable Hill Valley in which George McFly is a successful fiction author and Marty McFly bangs his girlfriend in the back of a pickup truck. That is to say, MMA might be approaching a level of popularity, constancy and quality that many (including myself) didn’t think it was capable of reaching in the current climate.

What’s the reason for this cautious optimism?

The initial catalyst, for me at least, is MMA’s reaction to Conor McGregor. Interest for UFC Fight Night 46 was so high you’d have thought it was headlined by Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson II rather than Conor McGregor vs. Diego Brandao. And this was on a Fight Pass card, mind you. That level of excitement for a Fight Pass card is extremely rare–as was the web traffic he brought in for a Fight Pass card. Fight Pass cards are so lackluster we refused to cover one. UFC Fight Night 46, however, garnered more traffic than even some Fox Sports 1 cards.

Conor McGregor stepping into the Octagon is an event. People need to see it. It’s no wonder then UFC Fight Night 46 was reportedly the most-watched Fight Pass event of all time. Conor McGregor has the makings of a superstar. He’s charismatic, a magnet for attention, he’s talented, and has a fan-friendly fighting style. Though McGregor is further proof stars have to be found and built up rather than manufactured by stamping “UFC” on them, McGregor is a light in the dark.

On Twitter, CagePotato joked that McGregor was “the new Ronda Rousey, and Dana White agreed.

Rousey, too, is another reason the future seems bright. As I’ve noted in the past, the UFC women’s bantamweight division is little more than a promotional vehicle for Ronda Rousey. If you doubt this, look at Ronda Rousey’s fights in the UFC. Was the UFC sponsoring her or her opponent? The UFC does not dissemble its abject love of Rousey; Dana White admitted Rousey is the only reason the division exists.

As inflammatory and ridiculous as it sounded when White said it, Rousey might actually be the UFC’s biggest star. This (somewhat) justifies the UFC’s treatment of her. But watching even the greatest of fighters crush glorified jobbers in under a minute can get boring–boring enough that people won’t pay $60 to see it. Currently, the UFC women’s bantamweight division is such that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the only person getting as much attention as Rousey. That’s changing now.

The UFC has Holly Holm. It might have Gina Carano this week, too. Hell, it could have Cristiane Justino in the future if she can consistently make the 135-lbs weight limit in Invicta. Dana White is already starting to backtrack on his “NO CYBORG EVER LOL” stance.

Rousey-Holm, Rousey-Carano, and Rousey-Justino are far more sell-able and will garner more interest than Rousey vs. any of the other overmatched contenders in the division.

The women’s MMA landscape as a whole is changing thanks to the UFC’s inclusion of the strawweight division via TUF 20. The UFC’s current strawweight roster possesses enough personalities (Rose Namajunas, Felice Herrig, etc.) to make the weight class interesting.

Then we come to UFC Fight Pass. We’ve panned the network on CagePotato multiple times, but Zuffa is finally starting to listen to our suggestions. To that end, they will now start showing Invicta fight cards. Deals with other MMA promotions might also be in the works. They also plan to to air events in judo, wrestling, and other martial arts. Fight Pass is changing for the better. What was once a cheap cash-grab is turning into a legitimate window into the mixed martial arts ecosystem.

And finally, Bellator. Bjorn Rebney is out. Scott Coker, a man with the proven capability to put on cards fans care about (and who’s not scummy and horrible), is in. With Scott Coker’s vision and Viacom’s financial backing, Bellator 2.0 (or Spikeforce, as we like to call it) can become serious competition to the UFC, which’ll force the UFC to step up its game and offer a better product. Look at UFC Fight Night 50. Is it a coincidence that it’s one of the more loaded Fight Night cards in recent memory? Did Zuffa just feel like throwing us a bone? Of course not. UFC Fight Night 50 is going head to head with Bellator 123 that night.

There are reasons for MMA fans to be hopeful. There is an emerging star on the horizon, the UFC’s biggest existing star has more credible, higher profile foes to dispatch, a new crop of feisty and fearsome women are entering the fold, Fight Pass is becoming something you wouldn’t be ashamed of subscribing to, and we’re fast approaching the spiritual resurrection of Strikeforce and the competitive nature in MMA it entails.

Are we approaching a Golden Age? Maybe not because the sport still has a few unsolved problems. But we’re certainly approaching an age in which things get better before they get worse. Be cautiously optimistic, MMA fans.