Gina Carano spotted training with Merab Dvalishvili’s coach amid rumblings over Ronda Rousey’s return | BJPenn.com

Gina Carano has posted some recent footage honing her fighting skills and while working with Merab Dvalishvili’s coach, some wondered if the women’s MMA icon would return to competition. It seems like headlines like this have been popping up lately in women’s combat sports in general, with rumors of ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey taking on Katie Taylor in a boxing fight that could possibly take place next year.

John Wood was the person in question who worked with Carano at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas. Wood will corner Merab Dvalishvili as he begins another defense of the bantamweight title. The Georgian defending champion will face Petr Yan in a rematch on Saturday.

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

Gina Carano and the former Ronda Rousey are feuding

Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey fighting each other has been teased more than once over the years because this isn’t a brand new phenomenon. On the PBD podcast In early 2024, Carano detailed how Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White met with the Strikeforce star in their office ahead of her title fight against Cris Cyborg. The former Elite XC star said the field made her a huge star in the UFC. But Carano wanted to fulfill her contractual obligation to Strikeforce.

That aforementioned Cyborg clash is, at the time of writing, the last official MMA fight in which Carano has competed. Carano then made the transition to the film world with her role in Hay wirewell received in the years after he left the sport without officially retiring. However, around 2014, there were reportedly fight talks between Gina Carano and Dana White about a possible superfight with Ronda Rousey.

Contractual negotiations did not appear to be going well, with White later criticizing Carano as the most difficult person he had to deal with. Conversely, Carano simply shared that she needed six months to build up to that type of fight and navigate the weight-cutting process accordingly.

The timeline would have resulted in Carano having to completely restructure a camp, as she had completely uprooted herself from the training landscape and didn’t have a core gym or cluster of gyms with which to work. That fight took place no more than a decade ago, but who’s to say Carano vs. Rousey will happen in the crazy modern landscape of martial arts in the 2020s? Carano also highlighted that intriguing period during his speech at the Joe Rogan experience.