By Boxing Insider Staff

Ronda Rousey returns to the cage Saturday night against Gina Carano at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, in the main event of MVP MMA 1 on Netflix. In the days before the fight, a video of Rousey’s open training striking session became the dominant story of the fight week, and not in the way Most Valuable Promotions would portray it.

Footage of Rousey throwing punches in front of cameras spread widely on social media this week, sparking mockery from fans and players. One widely shared post on X claimed that Rousey “looks like she’s never done striking in her life” – a sentiment echoed across MMA and boxing accounts.

Ronda Rousey looks like she’s never taken striking practice in her life. 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/04F5R2SDcy

— 𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓕𝓲𝓰𝓰𝔂 👹🩸 (@ChampFiggy) May 15, 2026

Rousey (39) told reporters during fight week that she started preparing for her 2024 return while pregnant. “I was about three months pregnant when my husband caught me doing suplexes in the garage,” she said, referring to former UFC heavyweight fighter Travis Browne. At Thursday’s press conference, Rousey was asked if she would hesitate to break Carano’s arm in the cage. “I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to break it,” she said. “But I wouldn’t hesitate to put it back in place either.”

Pioneer context

Receiving training videos is additional given Rousey’s place in combat sports history. She was the first fighter signed by the UFC, headlined UFC 157 against Liz Carmouche in February 2013 in the promotion’s first women’s fight, and retained the bantamweight title with six defenses. Her mainstream visibility, magazine covers, ESPY Awards and Hollywood roles are widely credited with making women’s MMA a mainstream product.

This visibility extended beyond MMA. The infrastructure and audience that Rousey helped build for women’s combat sports in the mid-2010s preceded the commercial growth of women’s professional boxing seen since then, an era that produced Katie Taylor, Claressa Shields, Amanda Serrano and the first women’s main events at Madison Square Garden and on stadium-level boxing cards.

Mayweather Cycle

The viral clips also bring back memories of one of the strangest promotional cycles in the recent history of combat sports media. In 2014 and 2015, when Rousey was at the peak of her UFC career, the question of whether she could beat Floyd Mayweather circulated in interviews, talk shows and sports columns for the better part of two years.

The framing was usually pushed by others, not Rousey herself. UFC President Dana White has said publicly that Rousey will hurt Mayweather in the fight. Conor McGregor said in 2015 that Rousey would “dismantle him in seconds.” Rousey, when asked directly during an August 2015 Reddit AMA if she could beat Mayweather, gave a more measured answer. “Floyd is one of the greatest boxers of all time,” she said. “He would definitely beat me in a boxing match. Unfortunately, I don’t like ‘matches’. I’m fighting for my life.” She added that in a fight without rules, she believed she could beat anyone, as ESPN reported at the time.

The boxing-specific version of the question of whether Rousey could compete with a pound-for-pound boxer of her generation was largely a media and promotional construct. Mayweather closed the 2015 ESPYs himself, telling reporters that he had never seen an MMA fighter earn that much in one fight.

Saturday night

Rousey enters the Carano fight with a 12-2 record in professional MMA, and last fought in December 2016 when she was stopped by Amanda Nunes in 48 seconds. Carano (7-1) hasn’t fought since 2009. The fight lasts five rounds in the 145-pound featherweight limit. Nate Diaz and Mike Perry will be the co-main event, with Francis Ngannou and Philipe Lins also appearing on the main card. according to ESPN’s card breakdown.

This fight is billed as the last professional appearance of both women. Whatever happens in the cage, the reaction to a few seconds of glove work this week is a data set on how much the conversation around women’s combat sports has changed, a conversation Rousey was instrumental in starting in the decade since her name appeared alongside Mayweather’s.

Tony Bellew believes Rico Verhoeven could give Oleksandr Usyk some awkward moments early in the fight, but he still expects the undefeated heavyweight champion to eventually work him out once the fight turns into a boxing match. Bellew also warned that Verhoeven’s kickboxing background makes him much more hazardous than many boxing fans realize.

“If this was a kickboxing match, I’m telling you, Oleksandr would be in huge trouble. Don’t kick him,” Bellew told DAZN Boxing. “Fortunately for Oleksandr Usyk, this is a boxing fight. I think once the first three or four rounds pass and Oleksandr Usyk sees the awkwardness, the attitude and the style, I think Rico may have a night of tough work ahead of him.”

“Rico Verhoeven is a problem. He is a problem and we don’t really know much about him from a boxing point of view. We don’t really know anything. He had one fight and you can’t get anything out of it at all. His kickboxing experience tells you an awful lot.

Bellew said during an interview leading up to the Usyk-Verhoeven fight that Verhoeven’s unconventional style could create arduous moments before Usyk starts making changes.

“You would forgive him for thinking this guy was a kickboxer. I won’t have to be 100% ready to beat this guy like Tyson Fury thought he was against Francis Ngannou,” Bellew said. “Or maybe he’ll take the Anthony Joshua approach where you go in there and say, ‘This is a grave fight. I’ve got to get rid of him.’

“I don’t think he’ll be taken lightly. Usyk is a consummate professional. He’s a conscientious professional. You’ll never catch this guy sleeping. You have to get out of bed really, really early to catch him.”

Bellew still made it clear that he sees Usyk eventually taking control once he gathers enough information during the fight.

“I think this fight will be very invigorating for six, seven, maybe eight rounds. I think Oleksandr will take a look at Rico. He will see what he is doing. He will find out what the feints will do to him and which side he will take him on.”

“Once he’s got it all, he’ll get rid of Verhoeven. He’ll just have too much and that’s the end of it. He’s doing the same to everyone else,” Bellew said.

Olly Campbell is a boxing journalist covering this sport since 2014, providing reports from the ring and technical analyzes of the most significant fights. His work focuses on fighter tendencies, tactical adjustments and the details that shape high-level competition.

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Last updated: 18/05/2026 at 23:10

Robert Garcia doubts whether Errol Spence Jr will be able to rediscover the qualities that made him one of the “best players” in the sport from 2019 to 2022.

“The Truth” was once considered the top 10-pound-for-pound operator when he dethroned Shawn Porter and Yordenis Ugas to unify the WBC, IBF and WBA welterweight titles

Around this time, many even predicted he would beat Terence Crawford, and only he did they lost their uncontested clash after a one-sided stoppage in the ninth round in 2023

Spence has remained out of the ring since then, but now plans to revive his career with a fight against Tim Tszyu, a former world champion, on July 25.

The pair will face off in Australia at the 158-pound catchweight, and Tszyu will have the home advantage as he too looks to reclaim his place on the world stage.

His last appearance at the world level ended with a defeat in the seventh round against Sebastian Fundora, who ended their first meeting in 2024 with a split decision.

That same year, Tszyu came close to a devastating third-round victory over Bakhram Murtazaliev, but is now coming off back-to-back victories following his rematch with Fundora last July.

Spence, on the other hand, seems to be taking quite a risk by jumping right into a perceived 50/50 conflict, with top coach Garcia telling him: ESNEWS that the 36-year-old would be forgiven for taking a “preparatory fight”.

“Errol Spence was a damn tough guy – one of the best players.

“When he fought Crawford, you could tell it wasn’t the Errol Spence we were used to, he didn’t look good at all.

“Three years later, he wants to return to boxing – and he has no intention of starting [with] tuning fight. I think he doesn’t know what’s left for him and if he improves the situation he could get his ass kicked.

– That’s probably why [made] decision to directly enter into a fight with Tim Tszyu. If he’s fresh and good, he can win.

As Garcia points out, there is no way to know how much Spence has left due to inactivity, which is a immense part of what makes this such an intriguing matchup with Tszyu.