Tag: Ronda Rousey

Gina Carano handled Dana White’s bully negotiating ‘the way she should,’ says John McCarthy

“That’s the kind of person she is, and that’s the way she should be.”

[autotag]Ronda Rousey[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Gina Carano[/autotag] almost happened and probably would have if not for, according to Carano, UFC president Dana White’s bully negotiating.

Earlier this week, Carano, the first breakthrough star of women’s MMA, appeared on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” and explained how White and Co. approached her about the opportunity for a comeback fight against Rousey, which would have been a superfight at the time. Carano said she verbally agreed to do it for $1 million, but she had just one request: “You got to be able to just sit on this for about six months, Dana.”

Since she hadn’t fought in a few years, Carano wanted time to find a gym and get situated for a proper training camp before news of a potential fight went public. White apparently agreed to oblige. But the next day, Carano said she was taken aback by the UFC boss sharing details with the media.

The situation got worse when White sent Carano a text message calling her a “bitch” that she didn’t believe was meant for her to receive. When she replied back, White apparently doubled down and said it was. That was the end negotiations.

On a Tuesday edition of the “Weighin In” podcast with Josh Thomson, Bellator analyst John McCarthy, a former referee who worked UFC events many times, sided with Carano for how she handled the situation.

“Gina is … she’s a different person,” McCarthy said. “She’s very shy. She’s very quiet. She’s got her people that she talks to, and she wasn’t happy about it. … “That’s the kind of person she is, and that’s the way she should be.

She should not take abuse from anybody over anything when it comes to the negotiation of a fight. She had agreed to something; (the UFC) had agreed to something; and someone didn’t hold up their end of the agreement. And then they’re upset about the fact that someone’s not being helpful to them when they haven’t held up their end of the agreement. That’s what happens.”

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Carano, whose professional MMA career began in June 2006, had her last fight in August 2009, losing to Cris Cyborg under the now-defunct Strikeforce banner. Carano transitioned into acting shortly after and has appeared in just films as “Haywire,” “Fast and Furious 6,” “Deadpool,” and most recently the Star Wars miniseries “The Mandalorian” on Disney+.

Carano said she’s had other opportunities to return to fighting, but her acting career has taken precedent.

“I think about it (return to fighting) every single time I hit the heavy bag. I think about it,” Carano said. “But if you were to ask me if I had the decision today, I would chose a movie, because that’s where my heart is, and that’s where I want to be, and I hope that maybe someday. I mean, if I really wanted to fight, I can pick up a fight in England or Thailand in muay Thai and get it out of my system. But for right now, I’m working on a script. I’m working on this other giant that’s become my fight now.”

Gina Carano says UFC offered $1 million to fight Ronda Rousey, explains why negotiations failed

Gina Carano says UFC offered her $1 million to fight Ronda Rousey, and explained how an accidental insulting text from Dana White derailed things.

The idea of a superfight between [autotag]Ronda Rousey[/autotag] and [autotag]Gina Carano[/autotag] was at some point a plan, at least according to Carano.

The first breakthrough star of women’s MMA and Hollywood star revealed to ESPN on Monday that the UFC had offered her $1 million to fight then-undefeated UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. The fight between the two easily could’ve been one of the biggest fights in MMA history with Rousey (12-2, 6-2 UFC) and Carano (7-1) being household names in the sport each in their respective eras.

“When Ronda Rousey became popular,  I remember they (Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta – former UFC owners) had finally called for a meeting and I walked in this restaurant and they looked like these two big muscly guys at the table in like the middle of Hollywood,” Carano said. “I remember thinking, ‘What took you guys so long, I’ve been, what took you so long.’ So they were like, ‘Okay we’d love to offer you a million dollars, we’d love to have that fight,’ and I was like, ‘Well, that sounds great but I’m going to need you to do me a favor, then, because I’ve been acting, I’m not active in any gym so it’s going to take me, you know, you re going to have to give me some time to build a team or join a team.’”

“And it’s not an easy thing, as I’m sure all the fighters know,” Carano continued. “You have to find a team or build one that’s going to be into what you’re doing and if you haven’t actively been a part of anything, you can walk in as Gina Carano or whoever but you’re still going to have to find the people who are really going to be there for you and that takes time. So I told them, ‘You got to be able to just sit on this for about six months, Dana. You can’t say anything and let me get situated with that and when because that sounds great and I’d love to do it.’ So it was a nice dinner and we all left positive, I left stoked, and I was like, ‘OK, well this makes sense, this is my moment to come and be back in there.”

Despite thinking the stars had aligned for a potential long-awaited return to the  cage, things took an unexpected turn when UFC president Dana White discussed the comeback plans with the media.

“Then like the next day, Dana was out there talking about me, talking about my name, and telling people that he was going to sign me – and I don’t even have a team yet,” Carano explained. “I was like, ‘that’s not what we discussed; you were supposed to give me at least six months to kind of find a team.’ Then he started trying to put on the pressure through the media, and it was a bummer because I told him over text message that’s not what we talked about, I need time, now I’m going to walk into a gym and people are going to know that’s what I’m doing. I need to build trust if I’m going to find people.

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“So then he kept on doing that and I was still kind of searching for a team and feeling all that pressure and then he sent me a text message saying, ‘this (expletive) is something like (expletive) us around,’ something like that. And I sent a text message back and I sent, ‘I think you sent this out to the wrong person,’ and he said, ‘I don’t think I did’.

“That was the last conversation that we had over text message. Because I don’t think that was the kind of environment that I wanted to come back into, I cut all communication after that text. Then I remember seeing him when Mike Tyson and my dad were getting honored at a sports hall of fame in Las Vegas, and he did come over and genuinely apologized.

“But yeah, I just don’t think even a $1 million, you shouldn’t, when people hold money over your head, which they have done since I was a little girl, its just never been a turn-on for me. I don’t have a problem with authority; I just have a problem with abused authority and that’s my thing, so that was the end of that conversation.”

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The actor whose roles have included “Haywire,” “Fast and Furious 6,” and most recently Star Wars’ “Mandalorian” also revealed she could’ve gone elsewhere, citing both that she was a free agent and her good relationship with former Strikeforce and current Bellator president Scott Coker.

However, Carano’s passion for acting was much stronger than her passion for fighting.

“I had a fight and I had a movie (Deadpool), and I chose the movie,” Carano said. “That seems to be the way how things have gone.”

“I think about it (return to fighting) every single time I hit the heavy bag, I think about it,” Carano said. “But if you were to ask me if I had the decision today, I would chose a movie because that’s where my heart is and that’s where I want to be and I hope that maybe someday. I mean, if I really wanted to fight, I can pick up a fight in England or Thailand in muay Thai and get it out of my system. But for right now, I’m working on a script, I’m working on this other giant that’s become my fight now.”

Carano last fought in Aug. 2009, where she lost to Cris Cyborg for the inaugural Strikeforce women’s featherweight title in what was the first major MMA event headlined by a women’s bout. The TKO loss remains Carano’s only professional defeat.

 

Mick Foley talks MMA’s influence on the art of pro wrestling, and ‘Peanut Butter Falcon’

Don’t think MMA influences wrestling and vice versa? Consider how an armbar looked in wrestling back in the day and how it does now.

Back in [autotag]Mick Foley[/autotag]’s day, an armbar was primarily a move used to fill time during the beginning of a pro wrestling match. 

If someone placed Foley’s alter ego Cactus Jack in an armbar back in the 1980s, Foley would slap the mat with his free hand to register the pain, kick his legs repeatedly so the people in the cheap seats could see how the move affected him, and give the camera his best agonized grimace.

He wouldn’t do much to defend against the hold, and certainly wouldn’t submit to it. Eventually, Foley and his opponent would transition to something else, ideally before the crowd started chanting “boring.”

“People really didn’t know back then,” the WWE Hall of Famer and best-selling author told MMA Junkie. “Maybe some of the more hardcore fans did, but the people weren’t educated on something like what a real armbar looked like, so we took it and used it to fit the style of the time.”

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These days? Due to mixed martial arts’ influence, a generation has grown up knowing what an armbar can do in a real fight. Thus, they know that if it is properly applied, a fighter has a window of a few seconds to come up with a line of defense, otherwise their options are to tap or snap. 

In that way, MMA has spilled over into pro wrestling. If you watch WWE or AEW these days, an armbar is a finishing maneuver, perhaps played up a bit more for dramatic effect than what you’d see in the UFC, but it’s made an impact on the art of wrestling performance all the same.

As Foley himself notes, [autotag]Ronda Rousey[/autotag] made millions of dollars in MMA off the strength of her real-life submission skills during her pioneering UFC run, then transitioned to headlining WrestleMania in large part on the strength of her public persona as a real-life badass.

“Look at what Ronda accomplished,” Foley said. “The people these days know what’s real in a fight, and wrestling is constantly evolving and adapting, and so now you’re seeing more of that. Just look at the way wrestlers throw kicks and elbows now compared to how they used to. There are more similarities between wrestlers and fighters, and the wrestling business and MMA, than you’d think.”

That goes for the movie business, too. While Foley still has a hand in wrestling and continues to do a successful touring one-man stage show called “Have a Nice Day,” which chronicles his life’s exploits, he’s also dabbled in the film realm.

His most recent Hollywood exploit was a part in the surprise hit “Peanut Butter Falcon.” The critically acclaimed film starring Shia LeBeouf, which was recently released on Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital, resonated with audiences. It’s became 2019’s highest grossing indie film, topping the $20 million mark, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and has an approval rating of 95 percent on the website Rotten Tomatoes.

Foley plays the role of a wrestling referee in the climactic scene in which Zak (Zack Gottsagen), a 22-year old with Down syndrome, lives out his dream of doing a backyard pro wrestling match against Sam, played by another wrestling legend in Jake “The Snake” Roberts. And Foley believes the film’s success has come about due to it’s earnest and authentic tone. 

“Zack was just so genuine,” Foley said. “His character was so well thought-out and portrayed. That really shined through, and it spilled over onto everything else, and I think it resonated with people of all ages because you can tell when you’re seeing something authentic, and that’s why audiences responded as they have.”

While the Long Island native’s first love was wrestling, he’s grown to become an MMA fan over the years. Foley noted he’ll be in attendance at the PFL’s Dec. 31 championships at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, where friend and former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia will serve in a similar function.

Which leads to the question: Would Foley have given MMA a chance if it was a thing back in his day?

“Nah,” Foley said with a laugh. “Look, I can take punishment, and MMA fighters can take punishment, too, but they’re world-class athletes. What we do is athletic, too, but I was a performer, and that’s what I was drawn to.” 

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