If anyone can understand what Ronda Rousey has been going through since her devastating loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193, it’s Gina Carano. Gina was the face of women’s MMA before Ronda, and went through everything Ronda went through on a smaller scale from 2006 to 2010. Her Holly Holm moment came then, when she lost to Cris Cyborg in a fight that saw her get overpowered and beaten down in the first round. So, she can relate. Here’s what she said to Fox Sports regarding Ronda:
“My heart truly does feel for Ronda,” Carano told FOX Sports recently. “I know what it’s like to get beat, on a very public scale and not do even 25-percent of what you know you can. I know what it’s like to want to do so damn good for all the people who found inspiration in your life and what you’ve done and almost want to do it more for them than yourself.
“I hope she surrounds herself with love and light to heal the brokenness she might feel. It can only make her better in every way if she allows it.”
Easier said than done, something Carano also must know. She never came back from that loss to Cyborg. She never stepped back into the cage to fight again. Instead, she turned her attention towards Hollywood full-time, filming the Steven Soderbergh action thriller Haywire. But without fighting to keep her in the limelight, interest in her as an actor waned.
After five years of hard work, she’s finally starting to get some plum roles, starring alongside Kellan Lutz and Bruce Willis in Extraction and landing a role as one of the lead baddies in the new Deadpool movie. But it’s a lesson Ronda Rousey would be wise to learn from: Hollywood might love you today, but leave you tomorrow if you stumble.
Is it better to walk away from fighting after the first misstep, or stick around to try and regain your throne? Carano walked away. Rousey plans on coming back. So, we’ll see how it plays out for each of them down the road.