Ronda Rousey Says She & Gina Carano Fought a Lot of Obstacles To Make Their Fight Happen

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano are set to compete in MMA for the first time in years, and Rousey says that they had to really fight to make the bout happen. As reported earlier, the two women’s MMA stars will face off in a sanctioned featherweight fight atop a card for Netflix on May 20th. The fight is one that nearly happened more than once but will finally come to pass now.

Rousey has been out of MMA for almost 10 years, while Carano hasn’t fought in 17. Rousey spoke with ESPN about the fight and noted that it’s been in the works for over a year. She noted that she and Carano both fought to have the bout happen and talked about how her training camp will be different now that she’s older. You can see highlights below:

On Talking with Carano To Make The Fight Happen:

“I mean, this has been in the making since I was pregnant, which is over a year ago. So it took a long time to to get us here, and I really can’t keep it — it’s such a long story, I can’t really keep it short for you. But we fought for this, and we fought to we fought to fight each other and there were a lot of obstacles along the way. I told her, ‘If I have to go out there and train you myself to fight me, I will.’

“And we made it happen. We had to work together to overcome every obstacle to get here. And it’s really surreal, because it’s been like a secret for so long. I can’t believe I’m actually able to talk about it.”

On How Her Training Camp Will Be Different Now at 39:

“Recovery [laughs] is a lot more important. And you know, I might not have as much collagen or cartilage as I have in the past, but I have more knowledge than than I ever have. And I really feel like it’s my technique and my wittiness inside the cage that always set me apart. It’s why whenever I get my hands on anybody, they never get up again. And I’ve never been better in that way.

“We had to kind of change training around where instead of doing multiple trainings a day, I just do one marathon training beginning of the day. And I spend the whole rest of the day doing recovery. Because it’s really hard warming up twice in a day when you’ve had as many athletic careers as myself.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit ESPN with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.