Ronda Rousey to fight Gina Carano in return to MMA - ESPN

Former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will return to mixed martial arts for the first time in nearly a decade when she faces fellow combat sports trailblazer Gina Carano on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, Most Valuable Promotions confirmed Tuesday to ESPN.

The blockbuster showdown between MMA legends will headline the first professional MMA event promoted by Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions and will be streamed live on Netflix.

Rousey and Carano will face each other at 145 pounds, and the fight will be professionally sanctioned under the Unified Rules of MMA and contested over five, 5-minute rounds using 4-ounce gloves, inside a hexagon cage.

«Been waiting so long to announce this: Me and Gina Carano are gonna throw down in the biggest super fight in women's combat sport history!» Rousey said in a statement to ESPN. «And we're partnering with the fighter-first promotion MVP as well as the biggest and baddest streamer on the planet Netflix. This is for all MMA fans past, present and future. More to come… much more.»

Rousey (12-2) was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo in 2008 and was the first female fighter signed to the UFC after a stint in defunct MMA promotion Strikeforce as its last women's bantamweight champion. She took the industry by storm, dominating the opposition upon her arrival in 2013 as the inaugural UFC women's bantamweight champion, and still holds the UFC record for successfully defending the title six consecutive times.

Rousey, 39, instantly became a star and ushered in an era of women mixed martial artists in the UFC. She ran roughshod over the opposition — behind her vaunted armbar finish — from her professional debut in 2011 to 2015, when 11 of