Who’s Ronda Rousey? Let’s take a more in-depth have a look at this athlete forward of her match in opposition to Gina Carano on Netflix. Ronda Rousey’s profession has coated extra floor than nearly anybody in fashionable sports activities, from the Olympic judo mats to the UFC Octagon, WWE rings and Hollywood screens. Now, eight years after her final MMA bout, she is going to return to competitors on Might 16, 2026 in one of the crucial talked about bouts of the 12 months.
Who’s Ronda Rousey?
Ronda Rousey was born on February 1, 1987 in Riverside, California. A former UFC girls’s bantamweight champion, Olympic bronze medalist, WWE famous person, and actress, she is broadly thought to be the one who launched girls’s MMA to the world. The 39-year-old is ready to make her return to competitors on Might 16, 2026, when she takes on Gina Carano in a Netflix unique MMA occasion.
Ronda Rousey’s judo profession
Rousey was a judoka earlier than anybody knew her title within the martial arts world. She competed within the 2004 Athens Olympics at simply 17 years previous, turning into the youngest American judoka to compete on the Olympics on the time. 4 years later, on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Yuko defeated Annette Boehm within the bronze medal match, turning into the primary American girl to win an Olympic judo medal.
Her path to that medal was not straightforward. Within the quarterfinals, she confronted Dutch former world champion Edith Bosch, who dislocated Rousey’s elbow twice in 2007, and was eradicated in time beyond regulation. She then fought by the repechage, successful three matches in a row and incomes the bronze medal. The 12 months earlier than the Olympics, she reached the finals within the under-70kg class on the 2007 World Championships, the place she gained a silver medal. Her mom, Anne-Marie de Mars, was the primary American girl to win a world judo title simply 24 years in the past.
Ronda Rousey’s MMA profession
Rousey made her beginner MMA debut in August 2010, successful with an armbar in 23 seconds. She gained all three of her beginner bouts through armbar inside a minute earlier than turning professional. Her skilled debut got here in March 2011 on the King of the Cage occasion in Tarzana, California, the place she once more completed within the first spherical utilizing an armbar.
She signed with Strikeforce and labored her means as much as a title battle in opposition to Miesha Tate in March 2012, defeating Tate through armbar within the first spherical to win the Strikeforce bantamweight belt. By November 2012, the UFC had signed her, making Rousey the primary girl to signal with the promotion. Somewhat than competing for the primary title, Dana White merely named her the primary UFC Ladies’s Bantamweight Champion.
Her first UFC bout, in opposition to Liz Carmouche at UFC 157 in February 2013, was additionally the primary girls’s bout in UFC historical past. She gained by armbar at 4:49 of the opening spherical. 5 extra title defenses adopted, together with a rematch victory over Miesha Tate, a 14-second submission of Cat Zingano at UFC 184, and a 16-second TKO of Alexis Davis. By the summer time of 2015, she had a 12-0 report and defended the belt six instances within the UFC alone.
Affect on UFC
Rousey’s addition to the UFC restructured the group. Dana White famously mentioned girls would by no means compete within the UFC, however she headlined the cardboard and have become one of many promotion’s high attracts inside a 12 months. Her matches captivated tv audiences, garnering pay-per-view numbers akin to these within the males’s division, and he or she grew to become a fixture in mainstream sports activities media, turning into the primary combined martial artist to seem on the duvet of Sports activities Illustrated in 2015 and showing within the SI Swimsuit difficulty.
Ronda leaves UFC
What occurred to Ronda Rousey? Holly Holm’s run ended at UFC 193 in Melbourne in November 2015, when she was knocked out with a head kick and follow-up punches in entrance of 56,000 followers, the most important crowd ever to attend a UFC occasion on the time. Rousey didn’t battle once more for over a 12 months, returning at UFC 207 on December 30, 2016, the place Amanda Nunes stopped Rousey with floor and pound in simply 48 seconds.
Though she didn’t formally announce her retirement from MMA, she didn’t battle once more. In a 2024 Instagram Stay session forward of the publication of her memoir, Our Battle, Rousey revealed that she had an extended historical past of concussions, a lot of which she saved secret throughout her judo and combined martial arts careers, making it not possible for her to proceed competing on the high stage. “I could not compete at that high stage anymore and I could not stand up to the influence,” she mentioned, including that she left when she was “stronger and quicker than ever.”
WWE’s Ronda Rousey
Rousey made a shock look on the 2018 Royal Rumble, competing in opposition to Uncooked Ladies’s Champion Alexa Bliss, SmackDown Ladies’s Champion Charlotte Aptitude, and Asuka. She signed a full-time contract with WWE and made her aggressive debut at WrestleMania 34 in April 2018, teaming with Kurt Angle to defeat Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, scoring McMahon with a signature armbar.
She gained the Uncooked Ladies’s Championship by defeating Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam 2018, and went on to win the SmackDown Ladies’s Championship, Uncooked Ladies’s Championship, and WWE Ladies’s Tag Crew Championship with Shayna Baszler. She competed within the first-ever all-female primary occasion at WrestleMania 35, going through Becky Lynch and Charlotte Aptitude. After being betrayed by Baszler at Cash within the Financial institution 2023, Rousey left WWE, posting on Instagram that Baszler was “the explanation I obtained into this enterprise” and that she had “no purpose to remain.”
Ronda Rousey motion pictures and TV exhibits
Hollywood took discover of Rousey when she was nonetheless the UFC champion. Her first movie position was as Luna in The Expendables 3 (2014), co-starring Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, making her the primary girl to seem within the sequence. She then performed the position of Kara in Quick & Livid 7 (2015) alongside Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. She additionally starred within the remake of Street Home (2015), enjoying the position of Patrick Swayze, and appeared as herself within the movie Entourage (2015). On tv, he hosted Saturday Evening Stay with musical visitor Selena Gomez on January 23, 2016, and has guest-starred on Blindspot (NBC) and Drunk Historical past (Comedy Central). She additionally appeared within the 2018 movie Mile 22 as agent Sam Snow.
Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano
The 2 girls most accountable for constructing girls’s MMA as a mainstream product will lastly meet contained in the cage. Discussions of a possible match between Rousey and Carano reportedly date again to 2014, but it surely by no means materialized as a consequence of scheduling conflicts and weight class variations. Carano is a former Muay Thai fighter (12-1-1) and combined martial artist (7-1) and was often called the “face of girls’s MMA” earlier than Rousey’s arrival.
Though she retired after shedding by TKO to Cris “Cyborg” Justino in August 2009, this bout marked the primary time two girls headlined a significant MMA occasion. She turned to appearing, most notably starring in Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, earlier than starring in The Mandalorian, however was fired from the position in 2021 following controversial social media posts.
The bout is sponsored by Most Priceless Promotions (MVP), co-founded by Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidalian, and would be the first stay MMA occasion in Netflix historical past. The bout has been confirmed as a professionally sanctioned 145-pound featherweight contest, and will likely be fought in a five-round, five-minute format utilizing 4-ounce gloves in a hexagonal cage underneath the Uniform Guidelines of Combined Martial Arts.
Battle dates, instances, and the right way to watch – When is the Ronda Rousey battle?
This occasion will likely be held stay from the Intuit Dome on Saturday, Might 16, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. The primary card will likely be streamed stay at 9pm ET/6pm PT, with the Netflix broadcast starting at 1am UTC. This occasion will likely be streamed solely on Netflix at no further price to subscribers. The co-main occasion options Francis Ngannou vs. heavyweight Philip Lince, and the cardboard additionally contains Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry. Rousey comes into the bout with knowledgeable MMA report of 12 wins and a pair of losses. Carano comes into the battle with a 7-1 report and her final battle was 17 years in the past.
With Might 16 simply across the nook, this battle will likely be a uncommon second act for Rousey in a sport the place she not often loses. Win or lose, this chance itself speaks volumes about how large of a presence she has been within the martial arts world, and the truth that Netflix has staked its first MMA stay occasion on her title says all the pieces concerning the gravitational pull she nonetheless has. For Carano, it is a likelihood for redemption after years away from the cage. For battle followers, it is a matchup that ought to have occurred 10 years in the past.
