By Mallory Mattingly
The stage is set! Rhonda Rousey and Gina Carano will enter the ring for the first “superfight” in women’s MMA history.
Both will exit lengthy retirements for the match up. NBC News said Rousey’s last fight was in 2016, while Carano left the MMA in 2009.
The event will stream live on Netflix on May 16, marking “Netflix’s first-ever live MMA broadcast and MVP’s inaugural MMA event,” Netflix reported. The fight will take place at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
“After the record-breaking success in boxing, we wanted our first MMA event to be truly legendary,” Gabe Spitzer, Netflix VP of Sports, said in the press release. “These are more than just athletes — they are generational stars, and having them headline our MMA debut at the Intuit Dome is a defining moment for us.”
Rousey and Carano are thrilled.
“Been waiting so long to announce this: Me and @ginajcarano are gonna throw down in the biggest super fight in women’s combat sport history! And we’re partnering with the fighter-first promotion @mostvaluablepromotions as well as the baddest streamer on the planet @netflix! This is for all MMA fans past, present and future. More to come… much more ;),” Rousey wrote on Instagram.
“Looking forward to making this walk AGAIN because I choose to and love it,” Carano posted.
During an appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter, Rousey revealed that the fight has been in the works for over a year and shared her impetus for making it happen.
When Rousey was nine months pregnant, she saw that Carano seemed to be struggling and wanted to help her out.
“The reason I had that thought was because she’s the one woman not only in MMA that doesn’t owe me a thing, but that I owe immensely,” she told John Fortenbaugh on SportsCenter. “I’m always trying to look at what I could do for her…there’s nothing I could really do for her except, when I was in a similar spot, depressed and feeling like I’d given up on the world and inadvertently on myself, what I needed was a goal, something to reignite my passion again.”
“I always said Gina is the one person I’d come back to fight for. And I thought, you know what? She needs this fight. And the more I thought about it, I realized I need this,” Rousey continued.
“This has been in the making since I was pregnant, which is over a year ago. It took a long time to get us here. It’s such a long story, I can’t really keep it short, but we fought for this. We fought to fight each other, and there were a lot of obstacles along the way. I told her, ‘If I have to go out there and train you myself to fight me, I will,'” the former UFC Champion and Olympic medalist added.
Fans of Carano and Rousey can’t wait to see their fight on May 16.
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