Gina Carano reveals the reasons behind the cancellation of the fight negotiations on her debut appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.
Carano asked for six months
The first breakthrough star of women’s MMA and Hollywood celebrity, Carano was approached by Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta when Ronda Rousey was at the top of her game. She was offered a million dollars to fight the yet-to-be-defeated UFC Bantamweight Champion.
The contest had the firepower to become one of the biggest fights in the history of MMA, given how both the fighters were trailblazers in the industry during their respective tenures. But since Carano was already well into acting by then, she asked for time to get back in shape and find a team to be in her corner.
Carano negotiated with White to give her six months and requested him to not make anything about the fight public during that time.
But Dana White had different plans.
White’s actions made Carano change her mind
Carano was clearly taken by surprise when White started talking about her return with the media from the very next day. Despite her texting him time and again about needing time to build a team, Carano explained, White would not back off and continued with making public statements about the possible fight.
Carano said that she stopped all communication with White and UFC after this conversation went down because it was not the kind of welcome she entertained for herself.
Even the $1 million did not matter as she turned down the proposal because according to her, people have been holding money over her head all her life and it does not work as a motivator for her. White had later apologized to her in a Hall of Fame ceremony where her father Glenn Carano and Mike Tyson was being honored.
Carano’s last fight was against Cris Cyborg in August 2009 for the first Strikeforce women’s Featherweight title. Her TKO loss in that bout, which was also the first major MMA event to be headlined by women fighters, is the sole loss of her fighting career.
Carano went on to star in movies with A-listed casts and smashing box office figures, like Deadpool, Fast and Furious 6 and Haywire. Her most recent appearance was in The Mandalorian on Disney+.
H/t to MMA Junkie for the quotes.
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