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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 as planned, will mark her farewell.
Perhaps the biggest female MMA star of all time, the 39-year-old will give fans another show when she takes on legendary fighter Gina Carano at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California with the help of Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.
“Yeah, I’m excited. It’s finally, like, super real,” Rousey told Pakinomist Digital. “At first we trained secretly for like a year. It was really more like a year and a half at this point, but at least over a year. And now it’s kind of really bittersweet that it’s coming to an end. I’ve had such 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, Nev., on July 5, 2014. (Donald Miralle/Zuffa LLC)
Rousey, the first woman signed by the UFC to become a Hall of Famer in 2018, retired in 2016 after six successful UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship defenses before entering WWE full-time. Rousey’s MMA record got off to a 12-0 start before losing her last two fights to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes respectively, and nine of Rousey’s 12 wins came 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 grind at all.”
“We made enjoyment a priority — actually enjoying the process instead of just hoping enjoyment would come along the way,” Rousey said. “Before, everything was so results-oriented. Now it’s all about the process. And once we made that shift, ‘let’s make this as fun as possible,’ I started getting better results than ever. I feel better than I ever have, physically and mentally.”
“I used to be very much in 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 that it doesn’t have to be. I can enjoy this as much as possible and it makes me the best that I can be. Because I already know that I’m a bad–. I already know all the ones that I’ve already done, I’ve done. So I think just making it fun… only good vibes, it’s all about me, none of this stuff going on around me, no unnecessary noise.”
So why return in the first place?
Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano pose after the press conference for the most valuable promotion’s MMA card at the Palladium Theater in New York on April 15, 2026. (Ed Mulholland/Imagn Images)
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“Gina, that’s why,” she said.
“I was nine months pregnant and about to jump in an office chair. I saw her at a low point, losing her bodily identity and being really unhealthy. And after seeing Mike Tyson come back at almost (age) 60 and be the most watched martial arts event of all time, I knew there was a huge demand out there and that these sports were the fights of the future.
“When I saw where Gina was, and I looked down at my big belly, where I was, I thought, ‘You know what? A fight between us would be huge, not just for the world, but for each other.’ And I think that’s what martial arts 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’s a goodbye after almost a decade out, all the emotions are in play.
“That fluttering in my chest, that nervousness, I know that’s what happens when I’m about to do big things. I don’t get scared of my own anxiety or my own fear, in a way. I wouldn’t even feel that way. I’m not scared of how my body reacts to those things, because I know that I’m doing something about what I’m doing before I do what I do before a hug. So when I feel those symptoms of that pressure, I don’t shy away and get scared for that.
“It’s more like the launch sequence before the rocket blasts off.”
As much fun as Rousey has had, there is still one goal – to win. Admittedly, “if there’s anyone on this earth that I would be okay with taking my happiness and running around with it, it’s Gina,” Rousey said.
“Because she’s the only person in women’s MMA who doesn’t owe me anything — and who I owe a huge amount,” she added. “And if that’s the only way I can give back to her — to give her the comeback story of a lifetime — I owe her everything, all the prosperity in my life. If that’s the way it’s going to go, then that’s the way it’s going 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, Nev., on Nov. 17, 2014. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images)
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“She’s going to have to pry the 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 me to beat the s— out of her to actually be the biggest compliment I could ever give her.”
