Former UFC champion and Olympic medalist Ronda Rousey (13-2) needed just 17 seconds to defeat Gina Carano (7-2) with her signature armbar on Saturday at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, bringing her mixed martial arts (MMA) career to a close.
In her return to MMA, Rousey quickly took Carano down to the mat at the start of the round. Carano tried to defend herself but left her arm exposed, allowing the judoka to apply her signature armbar.
Rousey stopped fighting in 2016 following losses to Holly Holm in 2015 and Amanda Nunes a year later. For the Riverside resident, this fight marks the career finale Rousey never had.
“There’s no way I can top this,” said Rousey, 39, when asked after the fight if she planned to return to the ring.
“I wanted it to last longer,” said Carano, 44.
Rousey urged Carano to consider the fight at a difficult time in her life and the actor said she lost 100 pounds to prepare for the bout.
“She gave me a reason; I woke up every day thinking about her,” Carano said of Rousey.
“She’s a hero to me. You changed my world,” Rousey told Carano, before hugging her after the brief bout. “I didn’t want to hurt her — that’s just how mixed martial arts is.”
The event was organized by MVP, co-owned by influencer and boxer Jake Paul and businessman Nakisa Bridarian. The bout was scheduled for five rounds in the featherweight division.
“You’re going to see more MMA on MVP, and it’s all thanks to these women,” Paul said, before telling UFC President Dana White that his company would host more high-profile MMA events like Saturday’s card at Intuit Dome that paid the headliners millions and every fighter lower on the card at least $40,000 apiece.
Carano had not competed since 2009 — a 17-year hiatus — and is considered by many to be the pioneer of women’s MMA, having competed in Strikeforce and Elite XC before retiring following a loss to Cyborg.
In other welterweight bouts, 41-year-old Nate Díaz (22-14) was unable to make it to the third round of his fight against Mike Perry (15-8) after taking a beating in two rounds, during which he also landed some strikes but bore the brunt of the action.
With Díaz’s face bleeding profusely, Perry took advantage of Díaz’s questionable physical condition. Díaz hadn’t fought in MMA since 2022, when he defeated Tony Ferguson, though he had dabbled in boxing.
Mike Beltrán, the referee for the bout, stopped the fight after Díaz was unable to stop the bleeding and continue at the end of the second round.
“I landed some good shots, but I was getting tired,” said Perry, 34. “He’s very good, tough; when he looks like he’s hurt, he always has a trick up his sleeve, so I had to be careful.”
In another heavyweight bout, Cameroonian Francis Ngannou (19-3) needed just one round to dispatch Brazilian Philipe Lins (18-6) in a fight where he didn’t seem to be trying very hard. The African fighter punished Lins, who, although he defended himself and managed to land a few blows on Ngannou, was easy prey for a blow to the head that knocked him out in the opening round.
“I kept my composure,” said Ngannou, 39. “My knockout wasn’t impressive for my style.”
Ngannou also challenged legendary former UFC champion Jon Jones to a bout in MVP MMA. Jones was in the arena conducting an interview with the Netflix broadcast team when he received the challenge and gave a thumbs up amid the crowd’s cheers. Another potential boxing opponent for the Cameroonian is MVP promoter Jake Paul himself, who stepped into the Octagon to celebrate with winners on Saturday.
“As a businessman, we’re going to promote MMA. And hopefully we can fight one day in boxing,” Paul said.
In the lightweight division, Salahdine Parnasse (23-2) defeated Kenneth Cross (17-5) in the first round after landing a flurry of punches and dominating him early. Parnasse unleashed a wide-ranging offensive, from body shots to head strikes, to end the fight at the 4:18 mark of the first round.
In another bout, in the heavyweight division, Brazilian Junior dos Santos (21-11) was knocked out spectacularly by Cuban Robelis Despaigne (6-2) in the first round. The Cuban landed a three-punch combination — two rights and a left — to finish off a bloodied Dos Santos at 2:59.
Despaigne, who has fought for promotions such as Karate Combat, said afterward that he would like to face Ngannou.
Other results
In the main event of the preliminary card, Namo Fazil (10-1) submitted Jake Babian (6-2) in the second round of their welterweight bout.
In a 130-pound catchweight bout, Brazilian Adriano Moraes (22-6) knocked out American Phumi Nkuta (11-1) in the final second of the third round. Moraes landed a kick to Nkuta’s body in the final moments of a close bout, and as Nkuta fell, Moraes applied a guillotine choke. At first, it appeared the bell had saved Nkuta, but the referee determined that the fighter was already knocked out and awarded the victory to Moraes.
In the welterweight division, one of the best knockouts of the night occurred when Jason Jackson (20-6) sent Jefferson Creighton (12-3-1) to the canvas in just 22 seconds.
In the featherweight division, David Mgoyan (9-1) dominated Albert Morales (19-11), defeating him by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-26, and 30-27).
Aline Pereira (3-2) defeated Jade Masson-Wong (3-3) by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 27-30) in a 130-pound bout.
Chris Avila (8-10) was defeated by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) by Brandon Jenkins (17-11) in a 165-pound bout.
This article first appeared in Spanish via L.A. Times en Español.
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