Gina Carano seen training with Merab Dvalishvili’s coach amid rumblings of Ronda Rousey return

Gina Carano has posted some recent footage honing her fighting skills and working with Merab Dvalishvili’s coach had some wondering if the women’s MMA icon would be returning to competition. It seems like these kinds of headlines are popping up recently in women’s combat sports overall, with rumblings of ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey taking on Katie Taylor in a boxing bout that may possibly transpire next year.

John Wood was the individual in question working with Carano at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas. Wood will be cornering Merab Dvalishvili as he embarks on yet another bantamweight title defense. The Georgian titleholder battles Petr Yan in a rematch on Saturday.

Carano has not fought in professional mixed martial arts since 2009 and has since enjoyed great success as an actor. Carano has notable credits in works like Deadpool as well as The Mandalorian.

 

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Gina Carano and the prior Ronda Rousey fight talks

Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey fighting one another has been teased more than once over the years with this not being some brand new phenomenon. On the PBD Podcast in early 2024, Carano mentioned how Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White had conducted a meeting with the Strikeforce star in their office prior to her title fight against Cris Cyborg. The former Elite XC star said the pitch was making her a big star within the UFC. But Carano wanted to honor her contractual obligation to Strikeforce.

That aforementioned Cyborg clash is the last official MMA bout Carano has taken part in, as of this writing. Carano went on to transition into the film world with her role in Haywire, being well well-received in the years after leaving the sport without officially retiring. Circa 2014 though, there were reportedly fight talks between Gina Carano and Dana White regarding a potential super fight with Ronda Rousey.

The contractual negotiations seemed to not go well with White later railing about Carano being the most difficult person he had to deal with. Conversely, Carano simply mentioned how she needed six months to build up into that kind of bout and navigate the weight-cutting process accordingly.

The timeline would have involved Carano restructuring a camp altogether as she had uprooted herself entirely from the training landscape and did not have a core gym or cluster of gyms she worked with. That fight didn’t transpire over a decade ago but who’s to say in the wacky of modern landscape of combat sports for Carano vs. Rousey to take place in the 2020’s? Carano also spotlighted that intriguing time period while speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience.