Movie actor and MMA star Gina Carano has given her strongest indication to date that her fighting days are not done yet. Carano has an MMA record of 7-1, and she has only tasted defeat as a professional to Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino in her last fight on August 15, 2009. Since then, she has concentrated on her acting career, and her latest offering, In The Bloodcomes out on April 4, but she is keeping all cards on the table.
Carano told Damon Martin of Fox Sports that while there might be some dust on her gloves, they were never hung up or put away. “I’ve never retired. I’ve never officially said that,” she explained to Martin. “For some reason a part of me has always kept it open. I don’t know, there’s a certain part of me that thinks if circumstances were right, and I could keep doing what I’m trying to make my future into, that’s an ideal world. If circumstances were right, you never know. I’m very open to it.”
One can only imagine that this is very good news for UFC president Dana White, who is fast running out of viable and marketable challengers for one of his biggest stars, bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey. According to MMAjunkie, when White was asked about Carano and a return to fighting he said: “If she wanted to fight in the UFC, of course. If Gina Carano wanted to fight in the UFC, we would definitely do it.”
Question is, will she be tempted to dust off her MMA gloves and lace up again to take on Rousey in what would be a mega fight and promotion? Five years is a long time out of any sport, and mega fights might mean catchweights and tune up fights and plenty of other permutations, but Carano’s latest comments seem like a carrot for anyone who might like to make an offer. We are huge fans of the 31-year-old here at Muscle & Fitness, ever since we featured her in our July 2008 issue, and we delved into our archive and found this behind-the-scenes video of Carano from that piece. Check it out:
And while we are at it, check out the trailer to In the Blood:
