The world isn’t giving Gina Carano much of a chance against Ronda Rousey when they fight on Netflix this Saturday May 16th. But one former UFC champion has worked with Carano for her comeback, and he believes “Conviction” will shock the world.
Bookies have Rousey a -535 favorite vs. Carano, who is a +400 dog. That’s nothing compared to Rousey’s old odds where she’d hit -1000 to -1500 on the regular, but it still tells you who’s favored to win, and somehow it’s the woman who admitted even glancing
blows in training would give her concussion symptoms.
One person on Gina’s side is Syndicate MMA teammate and occasional training partner Merab Dvalishvili, who is currently waiting for his chance to win back the UFC bantamweight belt from Petr Yan. He discussed how good Carano has looked in the gym on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“It was great honor for me to train with her and I was surprised, good surprised at how good she is,” Dvalishvili said. “Ronda Rousey has a judo background. I have also a judo background, and I was super judo. And I think Gina Carano will win this fight, how good she is.”
“When she was fighting, I was very young and I was not even in MMA, I never seen her fight before,” he added. “But when I was training with her, I was so impressed so I went and watched her everything, I check all her fights and she’s the real deal, and I think she can beat Ronda.”
“It’s gonna make UFC fighters look bad, and she’s gonna make judo also look bad,” Merab declared.
“She’s trained really hard. I’m impressed … I see the change, like, even her body change and her training change and everything, and she’s really training high level. And I think she’s gonna deliver.”
Gina Carano was indeed a badass … back in 2008. The level of competition in women’s MMA has gotten a lot stiffer since then, and Rousey is an Olympic caliber athlete whose judo throw to armbar combo is a 4 second fight finisher. How do you deal with that, as well as the age and ring rust issues?
You try to punch Ronda right in the mouth as hard as you can, as fast as you can. And we’ll see what happens from there.
