Ronda Rousey to return for May super-fight with gina carano

Ronda Rousey will make a high-profile return to mixed martial arts to face Gina Carano in a long-awaited superfight on May 16 (ET) at the Intuit Dome in California. The headline bout is set for five five-minute rounds at 145 pounds and will be streamed live by a major streaming service — the first time a live MMA fight will be presented that way by such a platform.

Fight details and staging

The event is scheduled for the 18, 000-seat Intuit Dome and will be contested under professional sanctioning and the Unified Rules of MMA. The matchup will take place inside a six-sided cage and, if needed, will run the full five rounds with four-ounce gloves and championship-length round structure.

Rousey, 39, carries a professional record of 12-2 into the bout; Carano, 43, is listed at 7-1 with her sole loss coming to Cris Cyborg in 2009. The contracted weight is 145 pounds (10st 5lb), putting the fight in the featherweight bracket for this event. Promoters have billed the pairing as a landmark moment for women’s combat sport and for the presentation of live MMA on large-scale streaming platforms.

Legacy and what's at stake

For long-time fans, this is the super-fight that never happened in the sport’s early years. Rousey emerged as the most visible female MMA star of her era, an Olympic gold medallist in judo who helped push women’s mixed martial arts into the mainstream and later crossed into professional wrestling and entertainment. She initially retired from MMA in her late 20s after back-to-back high-profile defeats halted a dominant run; in 2025 she said severe concussion issues were a key factor in stepping away from the cage.

Carano was a pioneer in the women’s game before stepping away to focus on an acting career. Her brief, high-profile fighting stint made her one of the first female faces of the sport. The match now presents both athletes with very different, though equally resonant, narratives: Rousey seeking to burnish a comeback legacy and Carano looking to prove that her early-era record and crossover profile translate back to the highest level of competition.

Road to May 16 and the personal angle

Promoters say the fight came together after Rousey personally approached Carano with the proposal. "Been waiting so long to announce this: me and Gina Carano are going to throw down in the biggest super-fight in women's combat sport history, " Rousey said. Carano returned the compliment while signalling confidence: "Ronda came to me and said there is only one person she would make a comeback for... This is an honour. I believe I will walk out of this fight with the win and I anticipate it will not come easy, which I welcome. "

The tone of the remarks frames the bout as mutual respect between two athletes who helped shape women’s MMA at different moments. Both competitors bring contrasting recent activity — Rousey with a long absence from sanctioned MMA competition and Carano with a lengthy hiatus following her last professional fight in 2009 — which adds questions about ring rust, conditioning and how competitive instincts will play out under five-round championship rules.

Matchmakers have emphasised that the contest will be professionally sanctioned and that both fighters will be subject to standard medical and regulatory procedures. More details on the rest of the fight card and broadcast arrangements are expected in the coming weeks as promotional teams finalise logistics for the May 16 event.