Gina Carano reveals she lost 100 pounds for Ronda Rousey fight on Netflix: 'It hurts to say that'

Gina Carano’s unexpected MMA comeback may not be until Saturday, but she’s already accomplished a personal milestone ahead of her Netflix fight against Ronda Rousey.

Carano, a women’s MMA pioneer who last fought in 2009, revealed Friday following the event’s official weigh-ins that she’s lost an impressive 100 pounds in the 20 months since the Rousey fight first came onto her radar. Carano tipped the scales Friday morning at 141.4 pounds, well below the featherweight non-title limit of 146 pounds; Rousey also came in under, weighing in at 142 pounds, making their main-event bout official.

In a social media post Friday morning, Carano wrote that she was “pre-diabetic” and “had trouble simply walking” in September 2024 before her transformation began.

“It was hard, SO damn hard,” she wrote. “There was so much to learn, too much to unpack here, ups, downs, plateaus, things I learned late I wish I learned earlier, trial by error, but I did it.”

Carano, 44, was already a pivotal figure in women's MMA history prior to Rousey's arrival in the UFC. In 2007, her and Julie Kedzie competed in the first-ever women's fight televised on Showtime. Two years later, Carano (7-1) made history again when her and Cris Cyborg became the first women to headline a major MMA event with their Strikeforce featherweight championship match.

Carano retired from MMA following that bout and transitioned into acting, but a potential fight against Rousey always reminded a talking point for fans in the years after.

Rousey vs. Carano is now set to headline the debut MMA event of Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, in a historic first-ever live MMA broadcast for Netflix this Saturday.