After nearly a decade of anticipation, Ronda Rousey concluded her legendary mixed martial arts career exactly as she intended – with a lightning-fast 17-second victory over Gina Carano using her trademark armbar submission before announcing her permanent departure from the sport.
The 39-year-old Olympic bronze medalist in judo delivered one final demonstration of the abilities that made her famous on Saturday, quickly taking down Carano and forcing her submission while fans watched both in person and via Netflix streaming before declaring her fighting career officially over.
“There’s no way I could have ended it better than this. I want to have some more babies, and I got to get cooking,” the mother of two said with a smile during her post-fight interview inside the cage.
Rousey became the inaugural champion of the women’s bantamweight division when the UFC created it in late 2012, launching an impressive streak where she regularly defeated opponents by throwing them down and securing arm submissions in opening rounds, just as she accomplished against Carano.
But mixed martial arts offers numerous paths to defeat, and Rousey’s shocking head-kick knockout defeat to Holly Holm in November 2015 marked the start of her decline as the sport’s premier female athlete.
Roughly 13 months afterward, she attempted a return to competition, skipping media responsibilities before facing champion Amanda Nunes, but the Brazilian fighter destroyed Rousey with a barrage of powerful strikes in just 48 seconds, knocking her unconscious and essentially concluding her MMA journey.
Saturday’s surprising comeback under Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions served partly as Paul’s effort to challenge the UFC’s long-standing control over the sport, while also providing Rousey a chance to correct her legacy before her final exit.
By facing the 44-year-old Carano, who had been inactive for 17 years and is now primarily known for acting, she selected an adversary who could potentially match her status as a female trailblazer in the sport but posed little threat in actual competition, allowing Rousey to solidify her legacy with one final characteristic triumph.
“I feel like a ghost was banished, and it’s just lifted a weight off of me that I didn’t realise I was still carrying in that way,” Rousey said with a smile during her media conference appearance.
“This is exactly what I needed, and that was closure.”
