Gina Carano Makes Wild Personal Admission Before Ronda Rousey Netflix Fight

It's been 17 years since Gina Carano last fought inside an MMA cage.

A first-round TKO loss to Cris "Cyborg" Santos with one second left in the round for the inaugural Strikeforce women's featherweight championship ended Carano's budding MMA career.

Until that bout, she was a perfect 7-0 with four finishes. After that bout, Carano stepped away from the sport to pursue a career in acting. She's since starred in Disney's "The Mandalorian" and movies including "Haywire," "Fast & Furious 6," "Heist," "Deadpool," and "Ring Girls."

But Carano is ending her near two-decade long MMA hiatus when she returns to the cage to face former UFC champion Rondo Rousey at MVP MMA: Rousey vs. Carano on Saturday.

After weigh-ins on Friday, Carano took to social media to make a somewhat surprising admission about what it took for her to even get in the proper headspace for the fight.

"Ok. Vulnerable post but here we are," Carano wrote on X. "I just weighed in at 141.4 lbs. Since Sept 2024 to today, May 15, 2026, I have lost 100lbs. It hurts to say that and share but I am going to share it because I worked so damn hard every week for over a year and a half to shed this weight. It did not happen overnight.

"If it wasn't for having this incredibly challenging goal in fighting @rondarousey I most definitely wouldn't have reached this. I was pre-diabetic, had trouble simply walking in September 2024 and have been on the path to recovery to turn myself back into an athlete since then. It was hard, SO damn hard.. there was so much to learn, too much to unpack here, ups, downs, plateaus, things I learned late I wish I learned earlier, trial by error but I did it.

"Thank you to Ronda, who waited patiently while I lost this weight and giving me something to aim for. There is still so much I need to learn and want to do in the health space and to continue transforming my body, but for today, I thank God, my husband and my family for sticking with and encouraging me the whole way."

A Rousey-Carano bout is a dream matchup MMA fans had been clamoring for for years. Both are widely regarded as two of the best women's MMA fighters of all-time.

Rousey last fought back in 2016 - 48-second TKO loss to former UFC champion Amanda Nunes. It marked the second straight loss of her MMA career after a 12-0 run that included six consecutive wins as the UFC's women's bantamweight champion and two straight wins as the Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion.

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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 6:42 PM.