Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano and the Casual Fan Reaction

Whenever fights with mass appeal come along, they bring in a wave of people who maybe never watched fights, used to watch fights but fell off for whatever reason, or are just casual fans.

Personally, I think the MMA community uses the term “casual fan” far too much. There are a lot of fight fans who watch a ton of fights and just have consistently terrible takes. Sometimes those fans lean more toward the betting angle of the fights, but sometimes they don’t.

I think of a casual fan as someone who tunes in for the big fights with a recognizable name. In the UFC in 2026, that can be more difficult to identify because there are fewer fighters with mass appeal like Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen, GSP, Brock Lesnar, Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Conor McGregor, and yes, Ronda Rousey. COVID can also get a special shout-out.

What I’m getting at is this: when these waves of new viewers tune in for something big, you better brace yourself for some really low-IQ takes. It happens every single time, and Rousey vs. Carano is no different.

The UFC Still Isn’t as Familiar as Hardcore Fans Think

I think a lot of people will understand this, but I know for a fact many of you don’t: there are tons of people who just don’t really know anything about the UFC.

It has gotten better over time, but there are still people who need clarity when someone says “the UFC.”

“Oh, is that the fighting thing? They fight in a cage?”

A lot of people don’t know who Dana White is, but they might know Ronda Rousey. They may have seen some highlights here and there, but especially today, social media can be so specifically curated that you can craft exactly what you want to watch and have fed to you all the time. So it doesn’t surprise me at all if someone doesn’t know jack shit about this sport.

I also think Dana White being so heavily involved with Trump piques some curiosity about who he is and what the UFC is for someone who literally never paid any attention to this sport.

Why Ronda vs. Gina Was Different

What is unique about Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano is that there is an audience that is familiar with Ronda Rousey. She casts a very wide net of fans, many of whom were loyal to her.

The hardcores like me are going to watch her fight because we watch every fucking fight, and a Netflix card is interesting. Ronda has a fan base that tuned in to watch her, and after she retired, they stopped watching. So we are going to get those people back, and they are probably going to watch because it’s on fucking Netflix.

Had this been a PPV, I don’t think it would’ve done well. Maybe it would have done decent numbers for a PPV in 2026, but nowhere near the numbers they got by showing it on Netflix.

Let’s also keep in mind that many people who are even kind of familiar with Ronda Rousey may have only ever watched fights at a sports bar while they were inebriated, with a friend who watched fights, or with an ex-significant other. They never really got familiar with the UFC product during that time.

Besides, if you tuned into a Ronda Rousey fight, it only lasted so long. Rarely did her fights go past round one.

I’d also like to point out that a majority of people tuned in for Rousey vs. Holm and Rousey vs. Nunes. They heard about this judoka bad bitch mowing through everyone, and then she got knocked out. Twice in a row.

I should also mention that maybe there are some fans who only know Ronda from WWE, but that cannot be too significant a number.

Gina Carano’s Appeal

As far as Gina Carano, enough time has passed that a lot of people do not really know who Gina Carano is. Not the fighting Gina Carano, anyway.

And those who did? Come on, guys. It was a flash in the pan. It only lasted a couple of years, if that, but it happened during a time when MMA was gaining tons of momentum: 2008 and 2009.

The rest know her from The Mandalorian or Deadpool. But she is attractive, so that makes up for a lot. It was her appeal in 2008, and it is still the appeal now.

Why People Thought It Was the UFC

So Netflix, Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano, and yes, even Jake Paul, open the floodgates for fair-weather fans, casual fans, and new viewers. A majority of them think, or thought, they were watching the UFC.

They do not have product familiarity because they just don’t watch. I know, shocking for some of you, but it is a fact. I can tell you this with 100% certainty.

It doesn’t matter that Bruce Buffer isn’t announcing, that Joe Rogan isn’t there, or that there is a black canvas or a WWE-style LCD screen tunnel. A lot more people who don’t watch are simply more familiar with professional wrestling than MMA. Add a gimmicky-looking LCD walkout entrance to the mix, and even subconsciously, it feels a bit funky.

Why the Finish Wasn’t Surprising

Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano lasts 17 seconds. Ronda doesn’t even throw Gina to the canvas. She double-legs her, gets the armbar, and it’s done.

Guess who isn’t surprised? People like you and me.

The people who are surprised, or maybe even skeptical, are not people like you and me. The hardcore and regular MMA fans are not surprised by this. Everyone else? Probably skeptical, confused, and maybe they just think it’s outright fake and move on.

You know what else I didn’t stop to consider? Did people even know why these two were fighting?

Sure, there were countdown videos and stuff, but the broadcast didn’t do the greatest job of explaining it. Even then, it really doesn’t make much sense. They both were gone for a long time, and now they want to fight each other. A fight that could’ve been but never was, and now here it is?

Well, I suppose that kind of makes sense.

Had MVP and Netflix told the story of Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano more accurately, I don't think anyone would have been surprised by the outcome. This is a classic case of Y'all Must Have Forgot.

The “I Told You So” Reaction

What I find funny is the hardcore fans and media saying “I told you so” when the fight ended quickly and early. It’s like, who are you flexing to? Anyone who follows you already knew this.

I left some room for pageantry. Maybe Ronda would want to prove something about her stand-up. Maybe she would make it a touch more dramatic. Maybe.

But since she didn’t, and since it was strictly business, it shows exactly why this fight was not fixed. That is exactly how it would go down every time if Ronda executed a no-bullshit approach to the fight.

A fixed fight is predetermined. It is secretly arranged. Someone agrees to something. Some say rigged, but these two were not under any obligation to the promotion. No one was forced into or pigeonholed into taking this fight. That was kind of the whole thing about this event. MVP was supposedly treating fighters fairly.

Ronda Rousey was highly favored, and the outcome was highly predictable.

If this fight had been rehearsed, it would have looked ridiculous. You’ve seen these two act. It does not look good, and that is with a script and months, if not years, of production.

If you think this fight was fixed, I actually understand the circumstances that would lead you to such a conclusion. But it would not look that clean.

Why This Fight Happened

Earlier, I asked why these two were fighting. I know why.

Sure, part of it is that it was a fight people did talk about. When Ronda was coming up, and even at her peak, a Ronda vs. Gina fight was mentioned from time to time.

It strikes me as strange that some who claim to be tenured fans say it wasn’t. It was.

Now, the hype and anticipation around it were basically non-existent because Gina would never commit. Sometimes you’d hear about talks with Gina and Dana, but it never really culminated in anything.

It was also the general consensus, again among fans like me and those who actively watched, that Rousey would decimate Gina Carano. Gina was doing movie shit. She used the attention from fighting to move on to other things. There was no reason to go backward.

We wanted to see Rousey vs. Cyborg. Even Gina fought Cyborg. But that’s the fight we wanted and the one that was being talked about.

Image Laundering

Why this fight took place, and why it made sense for both Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano, is what I call image laundering.

It is the primary reason. Sure, Ronda fights her hero, Gina loses weight and gets healthy, and it’s a fight they both wanted. All of that is cute and true. But in my opinion, it is image laundering first, money second, and everything else is not even close.

It is what I thought before, and it is what I think now.

Ronda Rousey’s career did not end the way she wanted it to, and her relationship with the media and fans tanked because of how she handled her losses. Anyone who was around for the buildup to Ronda vs. Amanda Nunes remembers this, too.

So Ronda comes back against someone with a name, a pioneer in Gina Carano, and gets to leave on a win. She can remind everyone who she is, or who she thinks she is, at the very least.

She gets one last taste of fame, and the fans do as well. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, all that shit.

Now she is arguably in a better spot to do something else, whether it’s another fight, promoting, making comic books, or whatever else. Or she can go back to retirement. Either way, she is now in a better position than she was before.

Gina Carano’s Version of Image Laundering

Gina Carano is the exact same thing.

I’m not going to get into the politics of what Gina Carano said that got her canceled. For someone who wants to tell stories, as she puts it, she really went about trying to make a point or statement in the dumbest way possible by essentially retweeting or posting someone else’s viewpoint that she agreed with.

Then later on, she used Star Wars memes or pictures to further drive her viewpoint and opinion on hot-button social and political topics at the time.

And it’s like, why?

Is there no one to advise you or have your best interest in mind? Is there not a more creative, better, smarter, more lucrative approach to saying what you want to say, Gina? Instead of shitposting?

It’s really quite remarkable.

So she comes back after a settlement with Disney, and essentially, what I think this is about is vindication.

“Look, I may have been beaten down by the system, but I am not broken. I am stronger than I’ve ever been. I stand by what I said and who I am. To prove that, I’ll get into the cage with one of the all-time greatest to ever do it in women’s MMA, stand before the media, and stake my claim. And by the way, if anyone is listening, I’d really like to act again or maybe even direct. Wink wink, Netflix. Wink wink.” - Not a real Gina Carano quote but what I think she tells herself in her mind 😂

So that’s what they did.

Gina Carano was not going to win this fight unless Ronda Rousey made a mistake by trying to compensate for something or putting on too much theatrics.

Gina Carano spent a very long time just getting into shape. Fighters who actively fight and are in shape will tell you there is a difference between being in shape and being in fight shape. There is no way Gina was in fight shape.

I think Gina came in with a game plan. I think she trained for all the scenarios. She was at a great camp. I truly believe she did wake up at 3 a.m. and think of all the ways the fight could go, and prepared for those things.

But so did everyone else who fought Ronda. And those were active fighters.

Thoughts on the Event Overall

A couple of last things now that this event is over: I enjoyed the card overall. It reminded me of a Strikeforce/Bellator hybrid. The production was good as far as the in-arena look.

I respect Mauro Ranallo and what he does, but ever since he started doing Jake Paul events from the beginning, I just haven’t been a huge fan of his style these days.

What would you call it? Figures of speech? Hyperbole? Idiomatic comparisons?

Like, “He tapped faster than a credit card” or “folded like a lawn chair.”

I get why he uses them, and I admire the creativity, but the older he gets, the dumber they sound. And it is just constant.

I know that is a personal opinion, and maybe it works for some people and for the masses, but I think I strive for a much more minimal and subdued approach to commentary these days. I want dead air from the commentary booth more often so that void can be filled with the sound of the crowd, and even more so, the sound of feet on the canvas, the punches, and the cage itself.

I love a two-man booth, but Mauro can really count for two people.

The pacing sucked, so we got too much Ariel Helwani. Fighters are so terrible at talking anyway that the last thing I want is more of that post-fight. Too much Ariel everywhere.

If he’s going to be involved, I wish it were more in the storytelling aspect leading up to a fight because Netflix-MVP dropped the ball on that. Their promo packages and explanations of who these fighters are and what they’ve done were terrible.

Granted, they’re not going to get clearance to use any UFC-owned media, but still. Tell a better story, especially with the amount of time between fights.

I enjoyed the prelims. Everyone is right about squash matches, but nobody talked about David Mgoyan vs. Albert Morales, which I thought was really good matchmaking. It was a challenging fight for David, but not one he couldn’t win. It was a tough but passable test for a prospect.

That should’ve been talked about like Jason Jackson, the Phumi Adriano fight, or Namo and Jake.

Fazil looked good. Parnasse was fun. You all know the talking points of this card at this stage.

I loved the black canvas. Nate’s blood looked awesome, almost cartoonish, on the black canvas.

I’m not a fan of calling it the hexagon. Just call it a cage.

I get why they do it, but it’s too diet-UFC sounding for me. I don’t mind the hexagon itself because if you use an octagon, then broadcasters are going to say “octagon,” and then they’ll have to pay the UFC for infringing on the trademark.

I guess I’m looking for a promotion that does better storytelling and finds more unique, creative ways to tell stories. Less bells and whistles. Less fabricated beef and all that garbage.

Make it look cool and keep it minimal.

They can do way more with a more focused and impactful approach because they won’t put on as many events as the UFC.

And less Jake Paul, too. You let him talk too much, and he sounds stupid as fuck.

Anyways, decent overall. Looking forward to more.