Ronda Rousey only needed 17 seconds to submit Gina Carano on Saturday night, but instead of celebrating the comeback, a large part of social media immediately turned to conspiracy theories.
Since the fight aired, comment sections across X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have been flooded with accusations that the fight was “rigged” or “worked.”
Now, one of Rousey’s closest longtime teammates has stepped in to defend her.
Shayna Baszler fires back at critics
Shayna Baszler spent much of the last 24 hours reposting clips, old fight footage, and comments defending Rousey’s history of fast finishes.
One repost came from MMA personality Matthew Hawkins, who wrote:
“I saw Ronda fight 6 times in person for a total cage time of like 3 minutes. The terrible takes from last night fight are why it’s becoming harder to talk MMA with new fans.”
Another repost came from veteran MMA journalist Ben Fowlkes:
“I had kind of forgotten that one thing about an MMA fight that brings in a lot of viewers who aren’t MMA fans is that you end up with a lot of people who don’t know what the hell they’re looking at.”
“17 seconds isn’t even her fastest win”
Baszler herself directly addressed the controversy in one of her own posts.
“If you want to know how fast the memory of MMA fans gets erased, 17 seconds isn’t even her fastest win and people think it was worked, lol.”
She then pointed to several of Rousey’s famous quick finishes:
“What about her :14 win over Zigano? Or her :16 win over Davis? Or her other 5 wins under :30? Or her 9 total wins under a minute?”
Baszler also addressed the technical side of the submission
Rousey’s former training partner also shared a video explaining the technique involved in escaping.
“I’ve heard a lot of people go, well, if that flame wasn’t rigged, why did Gina turn away from the armbar? Which number one, there is a valid escape in which you turn away.
However, I will also posit my opinion that she wasn’t trying to escape by turning away.
All that being said, as someone who trained with Ronda Rousey, none of those textbook armbar escapes really work against her armbar anyway.”
Rousey has a history of quick finishes
Baszler is correct here. Rousey built much of her early MMA reputation on explosive first-round armbars and blitz finishes. During her peak years in Strikeforce and the UFC, several title fights barely lasted longer than a walkout.
Her 14-second submission of Cat Zingano remains one of the fastest finishes in UFC title fight history. So, it should not be a shock that she was able to do this to someone who has not fought in 17 years.
Carano was not in her best form
At the same time, it is hard to blame fans for mistrusting the result. Many fans may not know that Gina Carano was not in her best physique leading up to this fight. At 44, she claimed she lost 100 pounds (100!) in the leadup to the fight and that she was prediabetic.
In her post fight interview, she said she felt like a victor just for making it to the fight. That is touching, but hardly what you would expect from a modern, professional MMA fight, let alone a main event in what is at least trying to be a major promotion. Did she even come to win?
Still, if it was a work, it worked out great for Ronda. Making 2.2 million dollars for a 17 second fight comes down to just under 130 thousand dollars per second. And that is something that few, if any fellow fighters of this or past eras will be able to rival.