Ronda Rousey Explains Why Gina Carano Is Her Only MMA Return Option

Ronda Rousey’s return to MMA wasn’t planned in a boardroom. It wasn’t sparked by a contract offer. It started while she was nine months pregnant.

Appearing on The Jim Rome Show, the former UFC bantamweight champion explained exactly when the idea hit her — and why Gina Carano was the only opponent who could bring her back.

When asked why now was the right time to put the gloves back on, Rousey didn’t hesitate. She said she had been watching an interview Carano gave during a difficult stretch in her life, and it struck a nerve.

“Uh, well, actually, I was nine months pregnant when I came up with the idea. I saw an interview of Gina and uh she had um I mean her her career had imploded after making some posts and she was doing an interview and was obviously not doing well and had gained a lot of weight and I've been in a similar situation where I I just needed I needed something to to pull me out of my own rut and I I owe her so much my my whole lifestyle, my whole career, everything. She’s the one that put it in my mind that um that I could I could be a fighter in MMA.”

Rousey made it clear that Carano’s early success in women’s MMA opened the door for her own career. That sense of gratitude never went away.

“And so I've always been kind of on the lookout for for what I could do for her cuz I owe her so much. And um and I thought like, man, she's literally like comes from wealth. There's nothing I can do for her. But I saw her in that spot and I was like, 'Oh girl, I've sung that song. I've danced that dance.'”

The former champion admitted she recognized something familiar in Carano’s struggles — something she had lived through herself. Rousey said what pulled her out of her own rut before was finding a renewed sense of passion, which she credited to WWE at the time. Now, she believes fighting Carano can reignite that same fire.

“And um what I needed to get out of that rut was something to reignite my passion again. And that's what WWE was was able to do for me. And I always said I'd only come back to fight her. So I saw her in that spot and I'm like, you know what? She needs this. She needs this fight.”

But as she continued thinking about it, the realization shifted from helping Carano to something more personal.

“And the more that I thought about it, I was like, damn, I really need this fight. It’s the only thing that kind of could ignite that fire in me again.”

Once the idea took hold, there was no turning back. Rousey said she immediately began working behind the scenes to make it happen — and kept it quiet.

“I once I had that thought, I was like, oh man, that would be so great. and um I I missed that feeling and so I I found a way to to reach out to her and uh it's been a long road to get here that I I won't be able to cover in the few minutes that we have today, but um but yeah, I've been we've been training for a whole year in secret and finally we're we're able to let it out.”

That means this isn’t a rushed comeback. It’s something Rousey says has been building privately for a full year.

Now the former UFC Hall of Famer is officially stepping back into the cage, not out of desperation — but because she believes this is the only fight that truly brings her competitive fire back to life.

Do you think Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano is the right fight for her return, or should she have taken a different path back to MMA? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let us know what you think.

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