Who’s Ronda Rousey? Forward of her Netflix match towards Gina Carano, let’s take a better have a look at the athlete. Ronda Rousey’s profession has lined extra floor than virtually anybody in fashionable sport, from Olympic judo mats to the UFC octagon, the WWE ring, and the Hollywood display screen. Now, eight years after her final MMA battle, she is stepping again into competitors on Might 16, 2026, in one of the crucial talked-about matchups of the yr.
Who’s Ronda Rousey?
Ronda Rousey, born February 1, 1987, in Riverside, California, is a former UFC girls’s bantamweight champion, Olympic bronze medalist, WWE famous person, and actress who’s broadly credited with placing girls’s MMA on the worldwide map. Now 39 years previous, she is about to return to competitors on Might 16, 2026, in a Netflix-exclusive MMA occasion towards Gina Carano.
Ronda Rousey’s Judo Profession
Earlier than anybody knew her title in fight sports activities, Rousey was a judoka. She competed on the 2004 Athens Olympics at simply 17 years previous, turning into the youngest American judoka to seem at a Video games on the time. 4 years later on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she defeated Annett Boehm by yuko within the bronze medal bout to develop into the primary American lady in historical past to win an Olympic judo medal.
Her path to that medal wasn’t simple. Within the quarterfinals, she confronted Dutch former world champion Edith Bosch, who had beforehand dislocated Rousey’s elbow twice in 2007, and was compelled into time beyond regulation earlier than being eradicated. She then fought by means of the repechage bracket, profitable three consecutive bouts to say bronze. The yr earlier than the Olympics, she had additionally reached the ultimate of the 2007 World Championships at under-70kg, incomes silver. Her mom, AnnMarie De Mars, had been the primary U.S. lady to win a World judo title simply 24 years earlier.
Ronda Rousey’s MMA Profession
Rousey made her newbie MMA debut in August 2010 and gained through armbar in 23 seconds. She gained all three of her newbie fights by armbar, all inside one minute, before turning skilled. Her professional debut got here in March 2011 at a King of the Cage occasion in Tarzana, California, one other armbar, one other first-round end.
She signed with Strikeforce and labored her technique to a title shot towards Miesha Tate in March 2012, submitting Tate by armbar within the first spherical to say the Strikeforce bantamweight belt. By November 2012, the UFC got here knocking, and Rousey turned the primary lady to ever signal a contract with the promotion. Fairly than battle for the inaugural title, Dana White merely named her the primary UFC girls’s bantamweight champion.
Her first UFC battle, towards 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. What adopted was a string of 5 extra title defenses, together with a rematch win 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 stood at 12-0 and had defended the belt six occasions within the UFC alone.
Affect within the UFC
Rousey’s arrival within the UFC reshaped the group. Dana White had famously mentioned girls would by no means compete within the UFC, after which she headlined a card and have become one of many promotion’s high attracts inside a yr. Her fights drew tv audiences and pay-per-view numbers that rivaled the lads’s division, and he or she turned a fixture in mainstream sports activities media, touchdown on the duvet of Sports activities Illustrated and showing within the SI Swimsuit Concern in 2015, the primary MMA fighter to take action.
Ronda’s UFC Departure
What Occurred to Ronda Rousey? The run resulted in November 2015 at UFC 193 in Melbourne, when Holly Holm knocked her out with a head kick and follow-up punches in entrance of 56,000 followers, the biggest crowd ever to observe a UFC occasion on the time. Rousey didn’t battle once more for over a yr, and when she returned at UFC 207 on December 30, 2016, Amanda Nunes stopped her in simply 48 seconds with ground-and-pound.
She by no means formally introduced her retirement from MMA, however she by no means fought once more. In a 2024 Instagram Stay session forward of the discharge of her memoir Our Combat, Rousey revealed {that a} lengthy historical past of concussions, lots of which she had saved secret throughout her judo and MMA profession, had made it unattainable to proceed competing on the high stage. “I simply couldn’t battle at that high stage anymore, and I couldn’t take these impacts,” she mentioned, including that her exit got here at a time when she had “by no means been stronger or sooner.”
Ronda Rousey within the WWE
Rousey made a shock look on the 2018 Royal Rumble and confronted Uncooked Ladies’s Champion Alexa Bliss, SmackDown Ladies’s Champion Charlotte Aptitude, and Asuka. She signed a full-time WWE contract and debuted in an precise match at WrestleMania 34 in April 2018, teaming with Kurt Angle to defeat Stephanie McMahon and Triple H — submitting McMahon along with her signature armbar.
She went on to win the Uncooked Ladies’s Championship at SummerSlam 2018 by defeating Alexa Bliss, and later captured the SmackDown Ladies’s Championship, the Uncooked Ladies’s Championship, and the WWE Ladies’s Tag Staff Championships alongside Shayna Baszler. She competed within the first-ever all-women’s most important occasion at WrestleMania 35 towards Becky Lynch and Charlotte Aptitude. After a betrayal by Baszler at Cash within the Financial institution 2023, Rousey stepped away from WWE, posting on Instagram that Baszler was “the explanation I received into this enterprise” and that she had “no purpose to remain.”
Ronda Rousey Films and TV Reveals
Hollywood took discover of Rousey whereas she was nonetheless UFC champion. Her first movie function was Luna in The Expendables 3 (2014) alongside Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, making her the primary lady to seem in that franchise. She adopted that up as Kara in Livid 7 (2015) alongside Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. She additionally starred in Highway Home (2015), taking the Patrick Swayze function within the remake, and appeared as herself within the Entourage movie (2015). On tv, she hosted Saturday Evening Stay on January 23, 2016, with musical visitor Selena Gomez, and had visitor roles 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
Two of the ladies most accountable for constructing girls’s MMA as a mainstream product are lastly assembly within the cage. Discussions a few potential battle between Rousey and Carano reportedly befell way back to 2014, however scheduling conflicts and weight class variations prevented it from occurring. Carano, a former Muay Thai competitor (12-1-1) and MMA fighter (7-1), was generally known as the “Face of Ladies’s MMA” earlier than Rousey’s arrival.
She retired after shedding to Cris “Cyborg” Justino through TKO in August 2009, a battle that was the primary time two girls headlined a significant MMA occasion. She moved into appearing, most notably showing in Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, earlier than touchdown a task on The Mandalorian, a task she was later fired from in 2021 following controversial social media posts.
The battle is promoted by Most Helpful Promotions (MVP), the corporate co-founded by Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, and marks Netflix’s first-ever stay MMA occasion. The bout is confirmed as a professionally sanctioned featherweight contest at 145 lbs, contested below the Unified Guidelines of MMA in a five-round, five-minute format with 4oz gloves inside a hexagonal cage.
Combat Date, Time, and Tips on how to Watch – When is the Ronda Rousey Combat?
The occasion takes place Saturday, Might 16, 2026, stay from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. The principle card goes stay at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT, with the Netflix broadcast beginning at 1:00 AM UTC. The occasion streams solely on Netflix at no further price to subscribers. The co-main occasion options Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins at heavyweight, whereas the cardboard additionally consists of Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry. Rousey enters the battle with a 12-2 skilled MMA document; Carano enters at 7-1, her final battle having come 17 years in the past.
With Might 16 quick approaching, the battle provides Rousey a uncommon second act in a sport that not often fingers them out. Win or lose, the event itself speaks to only how massive a determine she has been in fight sports activities, and the truth that Netflix is betting its first stay MMA occasion on her title says every little thing in regards to the pull she nonetheless carries. For Carano, it’s a probability at redemption after years away from the cage. For battle followers, it’s the matchup that ought to have occurred a decade in the past.
