Exclusive: Blame WWE for Ronda Rousey returning for her last MMA fight vs. Gina Carano

Tonight, on May 16, 2026, Ronda Rousey makes her MMA return after nearly a decade for her likely last fight against Gina Carano for Jake Paul’s MVP and Netflix.

Surprisingly, despite feeling like things were “somehow unfinished” for her in MMA, she wasn’t itching for a fight in the last nine years, as Rousey conceded while speaking with ClutchPoints over Zoom before the fight. While the drive to fight will never leave her, Rousey was content with her family life. Luckily, the door was open for a return when the opportunity arose.

Instantly, the “fire” was back. Even though she previously said she’d only fight again if her match against Carano warrants “a trilogy,” she sounds like a woman ready to leave fighting in the past.

“But I didn’t have any desire to reopen it until the idea for this match came into my mind, and that suddenly reignited that fire in me again,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything after this that could do that for me ever again. I think this is the peak.”

However, the itch didn’t come back until towards the end of her second stint with WWE. Rousey returned to WWE in 2022, shocking everyone by winning the Women’s Royal Rumble and going on to face Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 38.

The initial optimism dissipated over the following year before her second run ended with an “MMA Rules” match against Shayna Baszler at SummerSlam in August 2023.

“I think the match with Shayna is what made me miss MMA a little bit,” Rousey said before continuing, “because we got to actually flow around a bit, and we were actually hitting each other. We’re like, ‘Just go for the forehead.’ And stuff like that. [laughs]”

Ronda Rousey gave a “big middle finger” to WWE on her way out in her last MMA-style match

Detailing the polarizing “MMA Rules” match further, Rousey claimed it was a “big middle finger” to WWE fans and those in the business who wouldn’t get it.

Self-indulgent? Sure (even Rousey called it “selfish” and acknowledged the match “was for” herself and Baszler). Effective? Equally so. Rousey knows it didn’t resonate with WWE fans, and even she acknowledges that it might’ve gone over better in Bloodsport.

“I love that fight being my [last] match. I think it would’ve probably gone much better over at like Bloodsport or something like that, but I think it was kind of the best way for me to be able to say goodbye,” Rousey proudly said. “And being the true heel, I wanted to give the big middle finger to all the fans on the way out and put on the fight that I wanted to put on with my best friend.”

“[I wanted to] have a great time and shove that fight, that match down their throat. Because there were so many moments in that [match,] it was kind of like our wrestling love letter to MMA [where we were] recreating all these moments that happened in MMA that we really loved that people in pro wrestling just wouldn’t recognize,” she added.

Would Ronda Rousey ever join Bloodsport?

When asked about potentially joining Bloodsport, Rousey laughed and joked she needs to “grow up” instead of joining another combat sport.

“I don’t know — I mean, I know we could put on something great, but man, I feel like I gotta grow up. I gotta grow up and go have some more kids, and go to some soccer matches or something,” a laughing Rousey said.

Bloodsport is a unique professional wrestling event by Game Changer Wrestling. Unlike a usual professional wrestling ring, there are no ropes, and every match ends in a knockout or submission. It sounds right up Rousey’s alley, who wasn’t always gung-ho on the way WWE matches operate.

It sounds like Rousey didn’t always appreciate the flow of professional wrestling. A match is like a dance routine, and the partners have to cleanly get from spot to spot.

Her farewell match in WWE gave her and Baszler the chance to “freestyle.” Again, this was Rousey’s wish for her parting match, and it sounds like it was a success in her mind.

“We were like, ‘Okay, we’re just gonna get from this spot to another spot,’ you know? And we know how to move on the ground and transition, so we’re just like, ‘Okay, we just transition to that,’ instead of [in] pro wrestling, [where] you’re like, ‘Okay, you have to do it, and this, and such and such,’ [in that] pro wrestling way, so that in their language and doing it in a way that they can get whereas me and Shayna were able to freestyle in that way.”

Is Ronda Rousey worried that MMA has passed her by in the last decade since her last fight?

It has been a long time since Rousey’s last fight. There’s no way of getting around it. It happened on Dec. 30, 2016, when Rousey lost to Amanda Nunes. This marked her second loss in a row — her only losing streak in MMA. Going into her last two fights, Rousey was a perfect 12-0 in her career.

Despite this, Rousey remains as confident as ever, and she’s “not at all” concerned that MMA has passed her by. If anything, the game has evolved, and she’s now the beneficiary of those advances.

“No, not at all,” Rousey said of being concerned about MMA passing her by. “It’s still the same sport, and if anything, now I feel like I get to take advantage of all of the things that people have now.

“I get to take advantage of coaches with experience coaching MMA and coaches with MMA experience themselves that I get to collaborate with, and so I feel like my rate of improvement has just skyrocketed because I have access to all these things now,” continued Rousey.

Her new “recovery” process

Rousey, 39, feels “better than ever” in training, but the process has been different this go around. She called this her “dream camp,” but it has come with challenges. Unlike past fights, Rousey is now prioritizing “recovery more than ever,” which is the “biggest difference” from her past camps.

“[My] body feels great. Training’s been incredible. [It’s] been my dream camp,” Rousey said before admitting, “I’ve definitely had to prioritize recovery more than ever. One thing I’ve noticed that has really been different this time around is I just get so much more sore after training, and so I have to do sauna, cold plunge, hyperbaric [chamber], all kinds of stuff, to be able to stay ahead of it.”

She elaborated that “in training,” she feels “better than ever before.” However, it has taken a lot to keep her feeling that way.  Carano makes for an interesting opponent, as Rousey will be “fighting up in weight” against the 5-foot-8 Carano.

“In training, I feel better than ever before, you know? I feel faster, I feel more agile,” Rousey proclaimed. “Maybe I was stronger and more explosive before, but I’m also fighting up in weight, so instead of making weight and fluctuating, going up and down all year long, I [have] just been, for over a year straight, just feeding my body, training, doing everything, just nourishing myself, and I never felt better.”

Putting her game face back on

Regardless of the unique challenges this fight has presented, Rousey will have her game face on come May 16. Make no mistake, Rousey has had a switch she can flip when it’s time to fight since she was a child, largely thanks to her mom’s training regimen.

“Oh, man. I mean, there’s nothing like it,” Rousey excitedly said. “You’re entirely in the present. There’s no five minutes ago, there’s no five minutes from now. And when the lights turn on the ring, they turn off outside of it. And so it’s like you’re used to seeing a whole arena, and then suddenly, boom, [you] can only see this other person, and it’s like the blinders come on.”

Rousey explained that her mom, who was a decorated judoka, trained her to “hit this Pavlovian response” where she can flip the switch and be ready to “kill.”

“My mom would make me sleep in between matches and do a tournament. And she’d wake me up from sleep, and put me on the mat, and be like, ‘Go kill that little girl,’ and I would just, poof, turn it on, and do it over and over and over again,” Rousey explained. “It’s just something that is just so natural to me, you know? I know in those situations, that’s when I perform above myself. ”

Being friendly with Gina Carano before their fight

The switch will flip for Rousey when the lights go down. She has been complimentary of Carano during the build-up to their fight. It might seem surprising to see Rousey in this light, but she compared it to her fight against Cat Zingano.

They had a tumultuous lead-up to their fight, with Zangano having knee surgery and losing her husband unexpectedly. Regardless of the tensions that come with fighting someone, Rousey’s “heart was feeling for her so much.”

As they say, all’s well that ends well, as the two “went out and had my favorite fight of my career. She ran out and did a flying knee, and I did a round off of my head, and took her back and invented an armbar I never did before.”

To all prospective fighters out there, “hate” isn’t required to fight someone. Ultimately, it’s a competition, and both competitors should want to completely put it on the line. Like her or not, Rousey finishes her fights, and she knows how to entertain an audience regardless of her feelings towards her opponent.

“That [was] with someone who I really like. I don’t need to hate somebody to have a great fight. I have [a] 100% finish rate. You can say what you want about my fighting ability, but you can’t ever say there’s ever been a dull moment in any of my fights, regardless of who the opponent is or my relationship to them.”

Being a mom

It’s unknown if Rousey intends to raise her kids the same way. More than likely, her children will have the same killer instinct as their mom.

Her first child, a daughter, was born in September 2021. Even at that point, she was nearly five years removed from her last fight. Rousey likened being a mother to doing everything “on expert” difficulty.

She knows it would’ve been hard to achieve the success she had in her career had she become a mother earlier. That’s why she made it a point to reach the mountaintop before having kids. Now, they just have to live through one fight cycle before getting their mom back full-time.

“That’s kind of why I wanted to do everything in my career first before going and having kids,” she admitted. “That’s also why I don’t think I’d be able to sustain training and having kids. I want them to be my number one priority every single second of the day, and with a fight, it’s just not possible to be like that all the time.”

The thing Ronda Rousey will miss most after leaving fighting for good

Granted, Rousey will miss the fighting lifestyle. Some mothers take baths or take a drive to unwind and decompress away from their kids. Rousey? Her routine before a fight is her treat.

“I’m definitely going to miss it ’cause it, it’s nice being the priority, you know? Instead of everybody else is always a priority,” Rousey said with a laugh. “It’s nice to get pretty again and have people do my hair and makeup and have everybody come to the house and be like, ‘Let’s give Ronda the best workout possible,’ you know? It’s like getting spoiled and those kinda things I will miss, and that kinda community that I’ve been able to create around myself in training.”

She knows fighting would only last so long. While she “can’t hold onto those things forever,” she has enjoyed her career, and as it winds down, the final UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion looks ahead.

What does the future hold for Ronda Rousey after her last MMA fight?

Currently, Rousey is focused on beating Carano in their fight on May 16. However, once the dust settles, she is interested in collaborating with her opponent.

At this point, the former 2022 Royal Rumble winner has done it all. From fighting to writing a graphic novel, there’s little she hasn’t accomplished in her illustrious career. She wants to have one of her written works adapted for the big or small screen, but she also wants to team up with Carano in a martial arts movie.

“I think after this, there’s a huge opportunity with Gina and me to do something together in martial arts cinema,” she claimed. “Never before have there been two women who know how to be on camera and know how to fight on camera. I think it’s a huge opportunity that we should take advantage of, and I would love to do some martial arts stuff.”

Would a win or loss affect Ronda Rousey’s mindset about teaming up with Gina Carano after their fight?

Now, it’s easy to say this before the bell rings, but would a win or a loss affect Rousey’s mindset regarding collaborating with Carano again?

The former UFC conceded that Carano has been “pretty cool so far,” and assuming she’s “not a b***h” about the outcome, Rousey is all for a team-up.

“I know she’s not a b***h about it,” a smiling Rousey said. “She’s [been] pretty cool so far. I think that goes both ways. We’re gonna go out there, and we’re gonna leave it entirely on the line and put on… I think what’s important is that it’s a great fight. That’s all that matters. That’s something that we can create together, and she’s just been so classy and so charming all the way up until now.”

MMA is an unpredictable sport, and there’s a chance Carano “would do something on fight night,” which might change Rousey’s mind, but she’s “definitely not expecting it.”

MVP MMA: Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano will air globally on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 9 pm EST/6 pm PST on Netflix.

The post Exclusive: Blame WWE for Ronda Rousey returning for her last MMA fight vs. Gina Carano appeared first on ClutchPoints.