Gina Carano on the Night She Quit Drinking and Walked Into the Gym
Gina Carano says she had to give up heavy partying to become a fighter, and now that same drive is pulling her back toward a high-profile MMA comeback against Ronda Rousey on Netflix later this year.
On the Jaxxon Podcast, Carano described her teenage years as messy and chaotic, framed by late-90s grunge culture and high school parties. She recalled graduating in 2000 and chasing trouble with friends, drinking 40-ounce bottles of Olde English and treating that lifestyle as “the good old days.”
She linked that phase to following her older sister, who she said was a “free spirit” only 18 months ahead of her in school, and whose bedroom window was often open because she had already snuck out to shows and parties.
Carano said she idolized her sister and copied everything she did, which meant mosh pits, punk shows, and nights that started with a jump out the window instead of a trip to practice. “We were in the mosh pits, we were at the punk shows,” she explained, painting a picture of a teenager more at home in a crowd than in a gym. That period, she suggested, delayed but did not erase the competitive streak that later defined her career in Muay Thai and MMA.
Gina Carano and The Olde English bet that changed everything
The turning point, as Carano tells it, came through then-boyfriend Kevin Ross, who would go on to become a respected Muay Thai champion. She said Ross was looking for a different path and pushed her to try training, at a time when both were drinking heavily and treating alcohol as a central part of their social life.
In the Jaxxon conversation, Carano described Ross setting down a bottle of Olde English and telling her there was just a little left, then offering her money to start Muay Thai if she finished it and committed to training:
“And there was probably this much left and I’ll give you money to start Muay Thai. And it was a hard decision because we were drinking pretty heavily back then and Kevin put it down… So, I think that’s when he fell in love with me, when I took the Olde English back and I downed it and he was like, ‘I’m in love.’”
Carano told the Jaxxon hosts that fighting never really left her, even during long stretches away from competition. She compared it to a bug that stays in the system:
“Once the bug gets in you, you’re just like, I need that again, you know, which is why we’re here. Once you’re a fighter, it never leaves. It never went away. So after all these years, people are like, ‘Oh, would you ever come back?’ I never said no. You’ll never see me say no in an interview. ‘No, I’ll never come back.’ It always stayed a part of my brain.”
That mindset helps explain why, after more than a decade away from MMA following a 7–1 professional record, Carano accepted a matchup that has been fantasy-booked for years: Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano.
Rousey vs. Carano on Netflix
Netflix, in partnership with Most Valuable Promotions, has confirmed that Rousey and Carano will meet on May 16, 2026, at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles in a featherweight bout at 145 pounds under the Unified Rules of MMA. The event will be Netflix’s first live MMA card, streamed to subscribers at no additional cost, and staged inside a hexagonal cage in the 18,000-plus-seat arena.
Rousey, the former UFC bantamweight champion and Olympic judo medalist, has not fought in MMA since 2016, entering this contest with a 12–2 record featuring nine submission wins and three knockouts. Carano, whose last MMA bout was in 2009, brings a 7–1 record and the legacy of being one of the central figures in the early growth of women’s MMA in the United States.
