Ronda Rousey retires after 17-second submission win over Gina Carano

MMA star Ronda Rousey retired for a second time Saturday after defeating fellow pioneer Gina Carano by armbar in just 17 seconds during their nontitle comeback bout at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

The fight, which followed a hype-filled buildup, ended abruptly as Rousey floored Carano almost immediately and wrestled her into an armbar to secure the victory.

Rousey, 39, and Carano, 44, are widely regarded as two of the most prominent female fighters in MMA history, having helped bring the sport into the mainstream during their competitive primes more than a decade ago.

Carano had leveraged her MMA success into a Hollywood career, appearing in multiple action films, but had not fought since 2009 before Saturday’s featherweight bout.

Rousey, a 2008 Olympic judo bronze medalist who later dominated the UFC, initially retired in 2016 after consecutive losses to Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm.

Both fighters returned to the cage for Saturday’s card with the promise of a substantial payday, reportedly earning several million dollars each from the streaming platform that hosted the event.

Rousey, now 13-2 in MMA, secured her 10th career submission victory in her first fight since leaving the sport in December 2016.

She stated afterward that her return was a one-time event and ruled out further competition while paying tribute to Carano.

“Gina is the only person who could have brought me back into MMA – she’s my hero,” Rousey said. “She changed my world, and we changed the world, and I’ll never ever forget that or be able to pay that back enough.”

“I’m so glad we finally got to share this moment,” Rousey added.

Asked about a potential extended comeback, Rousey said: “There’s no way I could have ended it better than this. I want to have some more babies, got to get cooking.”

Carano, now 7-2, had been inactive since August 2009 and returned after a conversation with Rousey last year at the latter’s encouragement.

She acknowledged the fight ended too quickly for her and expressed regret over what she might have accomplished with more time.

“I feel great,” Carano said after the loss. “I wanted to fight, and I didn’t get that. But she trained. She had her game plan. I have so much love and respect for her, and this was a victory in my life. She changed it. I woke up at 3am every morning thinking about her. I fell back in love with mixed martial arts. There’s so many things to think about here. It’s just [that] the fight didn’t go my way.”

“I wanted that to last longer – I felt like I was so ready, I felt so good,” she said. “But I haven’t been here for 17 years. I wanted to hit her.”

Carano said she is unsure whether she will return to MMA, leaving the possibility open.

She noted that the simply getting back into fighting shape – she revealed before the bout she had lost more than 100 pounds (45 kg) over two years – was a victory in itself. “Right now, just getting in the cage was a victory; getting here after 17 years is a victory. Fighting a legend was a victory. I feel great, I just wanted to fight, and I didn’t get to do that.”