When Gina Carano sets foot in the cage to face Ronda Rousey on May 16, she’ll be fighting for the first time in nearly 16 years and there’s already plenty of questions about what to expect in her comeback.
That’s exactly what her head coach John Wood from Syndicate MMA asked when she reached out to him about coming to train at the Las Vegas based gym. While Wood has known Carano and her husband Kevin Ross for 20 years, he still had to know why she was returning to action after all this time away.
“Listen, we had that conversation today,” Wood told MMA Fighting. “I always have that conversation with every fighter. What is the purpose why we’re doing this? It doesn’t matter what the purpose is. It doesn’t matter if it’s for money, for fame, it’s to impress a girl, impress a guy, it all comes down to plain and simple: Winning fights. Trying to win fights.
“If we’re going out there and looking like dogshit, you’re not going to get the girl, you’re not going to get the money, you’re not going get the fame. Whatever the purpose is, you’re not going to become a world champion, if those are the things. So no matter what it is, it’s always about find why the motivation is and then figure out how to make that work.”
Wood, who also serves as the head coach to former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili among many other top fighters, wasn’t interested in throwing Carano out there like he was sending a lamb to slaughter.
At her peak, Carano was the first superstar in women’s MMA, but it seemed like her fighting days were well past her as she turned all of her attention on an acting career. But Wood’s purpose as a coach is getting his fighters prepared as best he can with the sole purpose of winning — and he wanted to make sure Carano had the same goal in mind.
“For me, we go out there to win fights,” Wood said. “Our goal at Syndicate, our goal for every fighter should be we’re going out here to win this fight. We’re not going out here to just show up and look like dogshit. If it was a money thing, it was this or that, it doesn’t matter. The end game is still the same.
“I can tell you this, she’s fired up. We’re firing on all cylinders already. She’s coming out there to win that fight. There is no intention of just showing up. Showing up’s not good enough. Showing up for me isn’t even acceptable. We’re going out there to win the fight. We’ve got a great team and coaches around us that we’re going to put the best Gina Carano that you’ve seen, especially in a long time. I think she’s going to go out there and do amazing things.”
While Rousey has also been out of action for nearly a decade, Carano is going to enter the fight as a decided underdog with early odds favoring the former UFC champion in the fight.
Wood actually embraces that role because he’s seen Carano putting in the work to get back into fight shape ever since she first arrived at his gym and the improvements thus far have been astonishing. Of course, he expects there are going to be a lot of critics wondering if Carano is even capable of capturing the same spirit she had when she last fought in 2009, but he doesn’t have any doubts.
He truly feels that Carano is coming back for all the right reasons and that starts and finishes with beating Rousey on May 16.
“I really believe Gina has the capabilities to go out there and shock the world,” Wood said. “That’s what our plan is. This isn’t just a cash grab. Like hey, we’re going to do this. This is two women who actually want to fight. They want to come back and get into it. I can tell you that the fire is there. I love the underdog role. I cherish that. I think that’s the best spot to be in.
“For me as a coach, it brings out the best in what I love to do and it’s great. Every fight [has] pressure whether you’re the underdog or you’re the favorite, it doesn’t matter. The pressure’s the same. It just gives you that extra little bit of motivation to go ‘OK, look what we can do and we’re going to go do it.’”
As much as Carano moved on from fighting when she suffered a loss to Cris Cyborg and then got into acting, Wood recognized right away that she still had a hunger growling inside of her.
In fact, Carano vehemently stated in the past that she never actually retired from combat sports so that door was always open. Her return may have taken a little longer than expected, but Wood is confident that Carano is going to be more than ready to throw down with Rousey.
“She misses the fight game,” Wood said about Carano. “She still loves to fight. She’s a fighter at heart. She’s still got it. She probably retired a little early and so I think there’s still that need to get out there and prove that she can still do it and I know she can. She’s in here with some of the top people in the world and doing just fine. It’s obviously just getting used to the acclimation of MMA itself, getting back on the mat, the bumps, the bruises, doing all these things but she’s a go getter.
“She gets in and gets after it. Half the time when we’re working I have to be like ‘Gina, settle down! Gina, stop, you’re killing the other person! Stop Gina!’ She’s a goer, she really is. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s going out there to win this fight. I think she’s put the best possible team around her and again, I’ve known her for so long and it’s so great and it’s such an awesome opportunity to come back full circle 20 years later and do this. She’s taking it very serious, as I’m sure Ronda is.”
The real proof won’t show until the fight starts, but Wood has seen nothing but total dedication and focus from Carano since her first day back in the gym. He anticipates that drive and desire is only going to grow larger over the next three months as Carano’s training camp kicks into full gear.
“Obviously when this first came out, you have that [reaction] ‘oh boy this is going to be crazy’ but the more that I’ve trained, the more that I’ve been with her, the more she’s in the gym, I really do think this is going to be something special,” Wood said. “I think that you’re going to see her go out there and do great things.
“You’re going to have your skeptical people. That’s just MMA and sports in general. People are going to say this or say that. I’ll tell you both these ladies are training. Both these ladies still have it, and they’re both going come out there and put on a great fight. The magnitude of it, just even today, love it or hate it, people are going to watch it. They just are. Netflix is such a massive platform. It’s crazy to be a part of it, such a big part of it, and these are the things I love. I love these kinds of challenges.”
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