Credit: Netflix

Have you noticed how a lot of people have suddenly started talking about this Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano fight on Netflix lately? That’s actually fair because it is such a big deal and not merely for MMA either. Half the people talking about it online probably couldn’t even tell you what half the rules are, but they still know who Ronda Rousey is.

That’s how big she got back in the day. Same with Gina Carano and all. These aren’t random fighters Netflix has pulled out of nowhere. Both of them were huge names long before this fight got announced, which is why the whole thing is getting way more attention than a normal MMA event would.

And the biggest thing making people curious is probably the timing of it all because neither of them has fought professionally in years. Yes, years! Ronda Rousey hasn’t been in an MMA fight since 2016, and Carano has been away even longer than that. So now everybody’s sat there wondering what they are both going to look like after being gone for so long. It seems like curiosity isn’t just the mother of invention; it also parents anticipated Netflix show watchers.

That’s the sort of thing the internet loves chatting about because comeback stories always drag people in, don’t they? Doesn’t matter if it’s boxing, football, wrestling, whatever. The second somebody returns after disappearing for years, everybody suddenly becomes an expert overnight.

Rousey, especially, was absolutely everywhere at one point in America. UFC made her into this massive superstar because she kept destroying opponents dead quickly with armbar submissions, and eventually she crossed over into films, WWE, interviews, magazine covers, all that stuff. Even people who never watched a single UFC event still knew her name because she became bigger than the sport itself for a while there.

Then, Gina Carano’s got this whole different reputation attached to her because older MMA fans still see her as one of the women who helped make female fighting popular before the UFC fully pushed women’s divisions properly. She already had a massive fanbase years before Ronda Rousey became champion. Although she did leave fighting and moved into acting instead. So now Netflix has basically ended up putting these two together. Of course, people are interested!

You can easily tell that Netflix knows exactly what it’s doing here, too, because live events have become massive for streaming lately. After WWE started pulling numbers and the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul thing exploded online, streaming companies realised people love watching huge live events together while everybody is reacting online at the same time. That’s the MVP now. It’s not merely about watching the fight itself anymore, but the massive involvement of social media in it.

And that’s probably the smartest thing about this whole event because you don’t really need loads of fighting knowledge to understand why people are hyped. Two massive former stars returning after years away on one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world… that’s enough on its own, really. Especially for Netflix, where everybody loves a dramatic comeback story. So… Are you excited?