Though she made her name and reputation as the Baddest Woman on the Planet as a UFC champion, Ronda Rousey is now equally entrenched as a WWE Superstar. She is currently the SmackDown Women’s Champion and a main event caliber performer any time she’s on a big card.
Rousey announced her UFC retirement in 2016 and was inducted into the promotion’s Hall of Fame two years later, so she’s made as clean a break with MMA as just about any fighter ever. Even so, there’s one potential opponent out there who would make her consider stepping back inside the cage.
On the most recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show, Rousey revealed that if Gina Carano ever wanted to throw down, she’d take the offer up in a heartbeat out of gratitude (h/t to Fightful for the transcription).
“There’s only one person. There’s only one person I would come back for. I mean, I’ve said it a million times, for Gina, man,” Rousey said. “Gina Carano, she’s the reason why I got into fighting, she’s the reason why I knew it was a possibility. I will always be forever grateful.
“If she wanted to come into my backyard and do the Rocky thing, you know, ‘ding-ding’ and we just do it in the backyard, I don’t care.”
Carano was an unquestioned pioneer for women’s MMA, participating in and winning the first sanctioned women’s bout in Nevada in 2006. She won six more consecutive bouts between 2006 and 2008 across several different promotions before losing to Cris Cyborg in 2009 in Strikeforce — still her final fight to date.
Since Carano’s run came before the UFC sanctioned women’s divisions, she never crossed paths with Rousey, who became an immediate sensation by winning the company’s first ever women’s fight. There had been talk of a bout between the two of them in 2014, but it never came together, and Carano has moved on to a career in television and film.
As it’s been more than a decade since Carano has fought professionally, Rousey’s dream matchup between the two women who put women’s MMA on the map will probably remain a dream. It’s still interesting to know that Rowdy would jump at it if offered, even this long after making WWE her home.