Could Gina Carano be preparing for a combat sports comeback? She’s already got both feet firmly planted back in the gym, according to her new coach John Wood at Syndicate MMA.
Carano was the original face
of women’s MMA back in 2006 to 2009 and made such an impression on fans that she was able to transition to Hollywood, starring in a Steven Soderbergh film, appearing in the Fast & Furious series, and landing a plum gig on The Mandalorian. A spin-off show of her own was even discussed before Carano was cancelled in 2021 over some questionable tweets.
Now, at 43 years of age, Carano has been back in the gym since December 2025 for what many believe is one more big money fight. The rumors swirling have her and Ronda Rousey facing off in a boxing ring — whose boxing ring and when remain unclear, and while Carano’s coach was willing to tease something he was tight lipped on specifics.
“Yeah, she’s here every day,” Wood said of Carano to Home of Fight. “She’s back in the mix. She’s back training every day. We spent the first couple months kinda getting her back in shape. She’s jumped in now and working with the pros and practices and stuff.”
“So who knows? I am not at will to say what could or could not happen there.”
“I think that this coming back and training has lit a fire under her ass,” Wood added. “I think that there’s some things that are potentially on the table and I think might be explored. Who knows what’s gonna happen? She’s been out of the game for a while, but I know that she’s got that fire, and I know that she’s in here training like a bat out of the hell every day. So we’ll see.”
There’s only so many fights that make sense for Carano these days and many of those are of the celebrity / freakshow variety. But with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions out there and Netflix cutting big checks for novelty bouts, you never know. Zuffa Boxing could even be involved given the Rousey rumors, and the boxing promotion does need to generate a few blockbuster events a year on top of their meat-and-potato Meta Apex house shows.
For now, just know that Carano has been back in the gym for months and has graduated back into the pro classes. What happens next probably depends on how many zeros there are on a contract offered to her.
