A number of storylines converged late Saturday night, as Ronda Rousey (12-2) clashed with Gina Carano (7-1) in the Octagon. The featherweight bout, streamed live on Netflix from LA’s Intuit Dome, marked the first showdown between the two most influential female fighters in MMA history; the first MMA fight for Netflix, courtesy of Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions; and the latest stunt for the streamer featuring pugilists well past their prime (Rousey, 39, hasn’t fought since 2016; Carano, who is 44, last fought in 2009, and claims she lost 100 pounds to make the 145-pound limit). Plus, both featured as toughs in “Fast & Furious” films, with Carano appearing in “Fast & Furious 6” and Rousey swinging at Michelle Rodriguez in “Furious 7.”
Then there are the social media posts.
Back in 2013, which feels like a lifetime ago, Rousey posted a conspiracy-riddled video to her Twitter account claiming that the 26 victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — 20 young children and 6 adult staffers — were paid actors, calling it “must-watch.” Following a wave of backlash, Rousey deleted the video and wrote, “Asking questions and doing research is more patriotic than blindly accepting what you’re told.” She finally apologized for the post over a decade later, in 2024, saying she “regretted it every day of my life.”Carano’s post came in February 2021. In the throes of the COVID pandemic, she posted an image to Instagram of Jews being massacred during the Lviv pogroms in 1941 along with the caption:
