Gina Carano is considered one of the first pioneers of women’s mixed martial arts. Born April 6, 1982, Carano first competed in professional MMA for the now defunct World Extreme Cagefighting promotion in June 2006.
She started her professional career in the sport of Muay Thai. She was shared by her then boyfriend Kevin Ross, who is a professional Muay Thai fighter. After achieving a 12-1-1 Muay Thai record, Carano received an offer from Jimmy Levine to participate in Nevada’s first ever mixed martial arts match with the WEC.
From there, “Conviction” Carano gained popularity while competing for Strikeforce and Elite XC, two promotions that eventually closed their doors.
Carano’s momentum picked up as she went undefeated at 7-0 before running into one of the all-time greats, Chris Cyborg.
Over the course of the year, interest grew in what if Carano returned to fight the likes of Ronda Rousey, or even just join the UFC’s women’s roster. It never came to fruition, and her acting career would take off as she landed roles on the silver screen and series like The Mandalorian.
Carano was profiled in a feature story for the ESPN series E:60. She was voted “America’s Best Woman” by Big Biz magazine in their Spring 2008 issue. On May 13, 2008, the search for “Gina Carano” was the search The fastest rising on Google and the third most searched person on Yahoo! 5 on Yahoo! “Top Ten Influential Women of 2008”.
In May 2009, Carano was ranked no. 16 on the Maxim Hot 100 list. She is one of the cover athletes with Serena Williams for the October 19, 2009 edition of ESPN Magazine edition.
She was a 2013 Critics’ Choice Awards nominee for Best Actress in an Action Movie for Haywire.
Ultimately, Carano’s political views and social media posts caused her major problems as she became the center of controversy and ended up losing her role in The Mandalorian.
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