Joe Asks Gina Carano About Being a Pioneer of Women's MMA

Well, there was a moment where you were going to come back. You're the OG. Oh, well, I mean, gosh, there was... No, you're the OG. Thank you. In terms of women's MMA, who the fuck is more OG than you? You're the original star. Well, like, not MMA, but like, Lucia Reicher. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and Muay Thai, yeah. And in boxing, yeah. And then there's Christy Martin and, you know, a lot of other folks. And then there was like the Debbie Purcells and Aaron... And Wolf. Yeah. There's been a lot of like women combat sports athletes, but in terms of MMA, you're the OG. Well, I appreciate that coming from you. That means a lot. What was it like back then? Um... Because like, you were the OG when it was weird to be fighting, and it was weird to be fighting as a woman. Yeah, it was just, um... You would go into the gym, and it was just... Well, we started at Master Totties, so there was a couple girls there that really liked to fight, but they liked to more look good, and the attention that fighting came from. Oh, yeah. Um... It wasn't all about like the fight, so... There's a lot of that now, right? Now it's like that, but it was like that then too. Um... I don't know, a lot of like the... What's her name? Aaron... God... Is Debbie Purcell and Aaron something? Aaron Tohill. Tohill. So they were actually the people, I would say, that started way before... Yeah, Aaron was... She's been around a long time. And Cyborg was doing it as well. So... Tara LaRosa. Tara LaRosa. Um... Old school. Yeah, I know. No. The early days. We're old. Yeah, we're old. But the early days were interesting because like, you know, there was a lot of people disparaging women fighting. Yeah. You know, including Dana White. Yeah. You know? Including most of the guys I trained with, which I love them, but you know, even Mark Beecher, he was like, no, get out of here. I'm not going to train any women. Okay, fine. I'll train you, Gina. It'll be cool. And now that's all he does, you know. You know, even, let's say, the Diaz boys. Like, I remember fighting on the same car as Nick Diaz. And he was sitting next to me. And of course, I was just nervous because I absolutely adored him. Still do. I think he's amazing. I just haven't seen him in like a decade. But he was like, you know, we're sitting there before a fight, having our post, you know, weigh in dinner. And he was like, you know, I got to tell you, I don't really like women fighting. You know, obviously say it like that. He's like, you know, I don't like what you do. I don't like women fighting. And I was like, I was like, that's okay. You know, maybe you're just a little old fashioned. And I was like, do you think my dad likes this? Do you think anybody in my family likes me fighting? And he was like, no, old fashioned. Okay. So I'm just old fashioned. I'm like, yeah, you just might be a little old fashioned. And then he was like pulling out my chair and opening my door. He took it to the next level. Yeah, he was like so sweet. I was like, he just needed to be told it's okay. You don't have to like it. You know, it's old fashioned. So yeah, some people get disturbed watching women get bloodied up. That's a big one for some folks. Yeah. Was it a thing for you? It feels different. Obviously, I'm a big fan of women fighting. But when I watch a big cut on a woman, it feels different. Like if I said like Yuri Prohaska and that fight would go over to share had this giant cut over his eyebrow and it's a massive cut. But it didn't bother me. But if that was you, if that was a woman, it was Valentina Shavchenko or something like that. I'd be like, Jesus, that's a big cut. And honestly, in my perspective, that's sweet. You know, that's nice. That's nice. You don't like to see women get cut out. Yeah, I think that's a really nice. I don't know why women or anybody is trying to get rid of that. Well, I get it. But I mean, look, if you're going to land elbows, it is a part of the story. It's a sport. You're going to get cut up. It's like people are going to get cut. Yeah, just part of the game. But you know, if you want to say that like here's a good example, like the last UFC where it was Zhang Weili versus Yohann and Yoon Jae-chek and then Valentina Shavchenko versus Jesus Christ. Why am I not remembering her name? Is it the Chinese girl that? No, no, no. Valentina Shavchenko had a really tough fight. Talia Santos, which was an amazing fight. Split decision, which could have gone either way. And a lot of people are like, oh, this card sucks. I'm like, because of those two fights, like you think the card sucks because two like super ultra competitive women fights that were insane and one of them was a spinning back fist knockout. Do you have a problem with that? Yeah, right. Like I don't care. I don't understand where people get off on the Internet. I'm judging. And like when I'm in a building or at a fight when people are booing, it like it boils my blood. Yeah. Like you get in there and do that, you know, until you've done that, then you can talk about it. It's just like, do you boo like that at baseball? Because baseball at its most exciting is not as exciting as two people clinching. Yeah. Maybe the fight fans just need to like get a couple more, I don't know, hot dogs or beers and just sit back and enjoy a little bit. Well, it's it's casuals, unfortunately, you know, and it's a lot of people that don't they don't appreciate what's going on or how hard it is. Look, I can understand some fights where people get bored and they boo, especially in comparison to some other fights. You know, I'm never going to be the one booing. No, I'm what I wouldn't boo either. But, you know, there's some times where it's just like, oh, Jesus Christ.