Gina Carano was as good as gone from the MMA world after her last fight in 2009. But as is the case with nearly every legendary figure or pioneer in combat sports, she just couldn't stay away, hence why she's gearing up for a big return clash against Ronda Rousey on Netflix for Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions on May 16.

But the road to an in-cage return wasn't without its many bumps and bruises for Carano. After rising to prominence as a notable name in MMA, especially among women, Carano, 43, instantly found success when she transitioned to acting in the 2010s. She put a decade of work into her new career before landing her biggest role in Disney's Star Wars spin-off series, "The Mandalorian," as Cara Dune. Carano appeared in seven episodes from 2019 to 2021, before she was publicly fired after making several controversial posts to her social media accounts. The backlash began when Carano made posts questioning mask use during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with rigged election claims and being accused of transphobia. For Disney, the final straw came when Carano made posts that likened differences in political views in the U.S. to those between Jewish people in Nazi Germany.

Carano ultimately sued Disney and Lucasfilm for wrongful termination and discrimination after planned projects with the companies were subsequently axed. Her talent agency, United Talent Agency, also dropped her as a result of the saga. The lawsuit was settled in August 2025 for an undisclosed amount, with the companies stating they look forward to potential future collaborations. Speaking in-studio on Wednesday, Carano admitted on "The Ariel Helwani Show" that tentative talks have already begun. Regardless, the damage of her "cancellation" process was done.

"I think that my words were taken and twisted out of context," Carano told Uncrowned. "But what I have learned is that that can happen. People will do that. I just have more knowledge now of how I — if I was in my body and mind right now — would have handled the circumstance five years ago.

"As far as regrets, I think we can always, always, always do better, but without doing things the way we do them, we don’t learn how to do those things better. … There are definitely certain things in life that you should be very, very sorry for. In all of our lives, and we learn from them. If you don’t learn from it, then you’ll probably repeat it.”

Carano recalled how her exile from public life took its toll mentally and physically.

“It’s like somebody pulls the rug out from under you, and you fall, and you break your neck," Carano said. "You really see who people truly are to you at that moment. You see people not call, then strange people call, and usually, people who have been through something similar have been through a certain amount of hate and can reach out because of empathy or something.

"It’s a very hard thing. I had so much anxiety in my body that my face hurt, my skin hurt me. I don’t know if anybody’s had that — it hurt so bad. My soul was just crushed. My heart was broken.

"I felt like there was such injustice in what happened, and it was all so harsh. But it did teach me about the world, about people, about mobs and propaganda, and how people can be so easily manipulated to hate someone you don’t even know. There's online personalities and friendships, and there's in-person personalities and friendships, and those don't always go together. Sometimes you can unfollow somebody on the internet and just see them in person and just have that relationship, because everybody's a kind of different person online, so it taught me a lot about the world."

At the height of her MMA powers, Carano (7-1) was a highly inspirational figure who laid the groundwork for countless women who followed. Coincidentally, her return opponent, Rousey, immediately seized hold of that blueprint, propelling the women's side of the sport to even greater heights shortly thereafter.

Rousey's own path has also featured setbacks aplenty in recent years. Her return will come nine years after last competing, compared to Carano's 17-year gap. No one, including Carano, could have predicted that if either were to return, it would be to fight the other.

"I'm happy to have had it lead me here, because I'm doing this thing that saved my life in the beginning, and now it's saving my life again," Carano said.

"It's fresh, it's exciting, it's groundbreaking, and I just feel like I have to get back to who I am, and this is where it started."

The build toward Rousey vs. Carano hasn't come without questions. Some of those being: Will the event be a one-off for Netflix and MVP? Is it a one-off for both Rousey and Carano? And after seeing Rousey and Carano together more as the fight draws near, are they being too friendly?

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters

Rousey, in particular, has never been one to shy away from making enemies out of her opponents pre-fight. Yet the story with Carano has been significantly different thanks to the several unique factors around it, such as Rousey handpicking Carano for this retirement-ending opportunity.

Despite the mass amounts of respect the pair shares, there will be no holding back come fight night. If anything, it's because of that respect that Carano promises to lay it all on the line for what is expected to be the most-viewed MMA fight of all time.

"We're going to fight, and do I want anybody to get hurt? No, but that's definitely a possibility," Carano said.

“It's all very fresh and new to me again. When you’re cutting weight, you get very emotional when you're fighting and training and sparring, or just have hard days. Some days you break down — [recently] I was looking out the window, and tears were coming down my face. [My husband] Kevin [Ross] walks up like, 'What's going on?' I was like crying, ‘I don’t want to hurt her,’ which I never even thought about that in my twenties. No, hurting someone didn't even cross my mind.

"Then I went into the gym the next day and got my ass handed to me, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK. No, no. We can do this.’ And it’s actually very respectful, right? Ronda’s been waiting to fight me for a very long time. I don’t want to disappoint. I want her to feel everything I have. I want her to feel what she’s been chasing. I want her to understand, because it's respectful to her — this is what I feel like, this is what this experience with me is going to feel like [for you]. So yeah, we're going to go for it.”