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This Saturday will mark the end of Ronda Rousey’s nine-plus year hiatus from mixed martial arts, and if all goes according to plan, it will mark her farewell.
The 39-year-old is perhaps the biggest female MMA star of all time, and she will give fans yet another spectacle as she takes on legendary fighter Gina Carano at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, with the help of Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.
“Yes, I’m excited. It’s finally super real,” Rousey told Pak Gazette Digital. “At first, we were secretly training for like a year. It was actually more like a year and a half at this point, but at least more than a year. And now it’s a little bittersweet that it’s coming to an end. I’ve been having a great time. This camp has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life.”
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UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey celebrates her victory over Alexis Davis at UFC 175 inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 5, 2014. (Donald Miralle/Zuffa LLC)
Rousey, the first woman to be signed by the UFC who became a Hall of Famer in 2018, retired in 2016 after six successful defenses of the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship before entering WWE full-time. Rousey’s MMA record got off to a 12-0 start before losing her last two bouts to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, respectively., and nine of Rousey’s 12 wins have come within the first 70 seconds. All but one of the wins were in the first round.
It’s no secret that Rousey is past her prime, but this camp “hasn’t felt like a routine at all.”
“We made joy a priority: really enjoying the process instead of just hoping that enjoyment would come along the way,” Rousey said. “Before, everything was so results-oriented. Now, it’s about the process. And once we made that change, ‘Let’s make this as fun as possible,’ I started getting better results than ever. I feel better than ever, physically and mentally.”
“I used to have that old school mentality that you have to suffer and make yourself miserable to be the best you can be. And now it’s like, no, I realize it doesn’t have to be that. I can enjoy this as much as possible, and it makes me the best that I can be. Because I already know I’m a bada–. I already know I can go deep. I already paid off all those debts, I’ve done all those things. So I think just making it fun… just good vibes, it’s all about me, there’s no other thing around me, there is no superfluous noise”.
So why go back in the first place?
Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano pose after the Most Valuable Promotions MMA card press conference at the Palladium Theater in New York on April 15, 2026. (Ed Mulholland/Image Images)
RONDA ROUSEY RETURNS TO FIGHTING AFTER A PAUSE OF ALMOST 10 YEARS: ‘THIS IS FOR ALL MMA FANS’
“Gina, that’s why,” he said.
“She was sitting in an office chair, nine months pregnant, bursting at the seams. I saw her at a low point, losing her body identity and feeling really sick. And after seeing Mike Tyson come back at almost 60 years old and be the most-watched combat sports event of all time, I knew there was a huge demand and that these exhibition fights were the future of combat sports.
“When I saw where Gina was and I looked at my big belly, where it was, I thought, ‘You know what? A fight between us would be huge not only for the world, but for ourselves.’ And I think this is what combat sports needs. This is what we need. And just like she inspired me to do MMA in the first place, she’s the one who inspired me to come back.”
Rousey said she “promised my husband and swore up and down to my sister” that this is her last fight. Knowing that it is a farewell after almost a decade away, all emotions are at play.
“That flutter in my chest, that nervousness, I know that’s what happens when I’m about to do great things. I’m not afraid of my own anxiety or my own fear, in a way. I wouldn’t even label it that. I’m not afraid of how my body reacts to those things, because I know that’s what it does before I do something great. I perform above myself when I’m under a lot of pressure. So when I feel those symptoms of that pressure, don’t shy away from it and don’t get scared.
“It’s more of the launch sequence before the rocket takes off.”
As much fun as Rousey has had, there’s still one goal: win. It’s true that “if there’s anyone on this earth I’d be okay with taking my happiness and running with it, it’s Gina,” Rousey said.
“Because she is the only person in women’s MMA who doesn’t owe me anything, and I owe her immensely,” she added. “And if this is the only way I can repay her, give her the comeback story of her life, I owe everything, all the prosperity of my life, to her. If that’s the path she has to go, then that’s the path she has to go.”
But it won’t be easy.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey interacts with the crowd during the UFC Time Is Now press conference at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 17, 2014. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images)
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“She’s going to have to pry victory from my cold, dead fingers. Because I want to show her the monster she created. And I want her to be proud of me,” Rousey said.
“I want you to beat him up so it’s the biggest compliment I can give him.”
