Carano's coach expects another fight after 17-second loss to Rousey at MVP debut

Gina Carano’s long-awaited MMA comeback ended in 17 seconds on Saturday, when Ronda Rousey submitted her with an armbar in the main event of Most Valuable Promotions’ first MMA card at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles — but her coach believes the story is not over.

Coach John Wood, who led Carano’s camp for the fight, said he sees a fighter who still has competitive value and who rediscovered her passion for the sport during training. “She found the love of fighting again,” Wood said. “As a coach, I see somebody in the room who can still fight. And there’s a lot of people that she can still beat, I guarantee you. I think with the right matchups and the right, fair matchups, that we can have some fun out there.”

Carano herself acknowledged in her post-fight interview that she would have liked the opportunity to show more in her first appearance since August 15, 2009 — a gap of nearly 17 years. Ahead of the Rousey bout, she had revealed she lost more than 100 pounds through her training camp, meaning the bulk of the physical preparation has already been completed.

Wood is keen to capitalise on that groundwork. “I personally would like to see her take the work that we did and actually have another camp that would be focused on just fighting,” he said. “All the hard work, the bulls—t, the weight cut has been done. I would love to see her have another camp and do a fun fight.”

Asked directly whether he expects Carano to compete again, Wood was cautiously optimistic. “I would lean more to yes than no. I feel like there’s going to be kind of the same thing that Ronda had — that empty hole that was left in her. Gina’s gonna have that now after going through this process and being fired up. I think that maybe we see another one.”

Carano was a trailblazer in women’s MMA, winning her first seven professional bouts before suffering a first-round technical knockout loss to Cristiane Justino under the Strikeforce banner. She also featured in the first women’s MMA fight broadcast on national television, a victory over Julie Kedzie. Whether she returns to the cage will ultimately be her decision, but her coach is clearly hoping she does.