Gina Carano has responded to Sean Strickland’s viral tirade about her upcoming struggle with Ronda Rousey by framing his feedback as coming from ache reasonably than partaking in a again‑and‑forth confrontation.
Carano was requested about Strickland after the previous UFC middleweight champion mocked the Netflix‑backed Rousey vs Carano comeback struggle and dismissed the matchup as “two center‑aged girls” that he had little interest in watching. Strickland had already drawn criticism for saying girls’s MMA “sucked” when Carano fought, suggesting Rousey would “steamroll” her, and cracking jokes about Rousey’s previous abusive relationship whereas claiming that girls have been “empowered an excessive amount of.”
These feedback, made throughout latest media appearances selling his bout with Anthony Hernandez, triggered a wave of backlash from followers and media who labeled the remarks sexist and disrespectful to girls’s sport.
Gina Carano reacts to Sean Strickland’s Rousey feedback says she’ll simply pray for him
Carano, 43, declined to match Strickland’s tone. Talking throughout struggle week media and in clips shared by shops together with FightHype and Glad Punch on social platforms, she stated she doesn’t spend power on his opinions and views them as coming from a spot of damage.
“I feel his phrases are sadly coming from a damage place. Damage individuals damage individuals,” Carano stated, calling Strickland “a bit exploited” and arguing that “that ache is on full show.” She added, “All you are able to do is pray for that man,” making it clear she sees his outbursts as a mirrored image of his personal struggles greater than a critical critique of her struggle with Rousey.
As a substitute of turning the story into a private feud, Carano tried to redirect the dialog towards what she believes the matchup represents. The previous Strikeforce star, who final fought in 2009 earlier than shifting into performing, described herself as somebody who will defend her residence, children and private security, and stated she desires “Viking ass girls” in society who’re able to do the identical.
In her view, the Rousey struggle is about displaying that girls will be bodily succesful and prepared to guard themselves, and he or she argued that even somebody like Strickland would need his nieces and daughters to have that very same means.
Carano vs Rousey, scheduled for Could 16 on the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles and set to stream globally on Netflix, brings collectively two of essentially the most recognizable names within the historical past of girls’s MMA. Carano was one of many sport’s first mainstream faces with a 7‑1 document and excessive‑profile Strikeforce bouts, whereas Rousey went on to develop into the UFC’s inaugural girls’s bantamweight champion and a crossover attraction after her 2016 exit from the cage.
Their lengthy‑mentioned assembly, lastly made for 2026 after each spent years away from competitors, has develop into a lightning rod for debate over age, relevance and the way in which girls fighters are nonetheless talked about on the highest degree of the game.
Carano’s selection to reply to Strickland with empathy and a concentrate on therapeutic, whereas doubling down on messages of self‑defence and powerful femininity, stands in distinction to the cruel tone that pushed his feedback into the highlight within the first place.
