'That is my moment': Carano has an opportunity to pioneer in MMA again - ESPN

Gina Carano is a woman of firsts. In August 2009, Carano and Cris Cyborg were the first women to headline a major MMA event on Showtime. Before that, Carano was one half of the first women's MMA fight to be broadcast on live television in 2007. And before that, in 2006, she fought in Nevada's first sanctioned women's MMA fight.

And now, two decades after her first groundbreaking MMA moment, Carano, 44, has a unique opportunity to be a trailblazer again for a new audience. She and fellow women's MMA pioneer Ronda Rousey will close out the first mixed martial arts card promoted by Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions brand live on Netflix.

For many, this is an MMA dream fight and a generational clash in which the past is transported to an evolved present. It's the women's MMA version of Billie Jean King vs. Serena Williams, Lisa Leslie vs. A'ja Wilson or Laila Ali vs. Claressa Shields. Carano vs. Rousey in 2026 is both a historic and crowning achievement that celebrates women's MMA.

Even though Carano has embarked on a successful acting career in the nearly 17 years since her last fight, most notably as Cara Dune in the Star Wars series «The Mandalorian,» she wants the opportunity to rewrite her history and remind people, including herself, why she was once recognized as the face of women's MMA.

«I get to revive and reveal the fighting side of me because a lot of people either forgot or weren't around the last time I fought,» Carano told ESPN last month. «I've heard people say Ronda Rousey is fighting the girl from 'The Mandalorian.' No, I had a whole life that opened the doors to those movie opportunities, and it was me being a fighter, a genuine fighter who broke a lot of barriers. Everything I've gone through leading to