How Rousey and Carano fought ‘ring rust’ with saunas, red light therapy and brain scans

Usually, when ‘ring rust’ is mentioned around a fighter, it’s in reference to a year – two at a push – away from competition. In the case of mixed martial artists Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey, who meet at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on Saturday in Netflix’s first live MMA broadcast, the rust has been gathering for far longer.

How Rousey and Carano fought ‘ring rust’ with saunas, red light therapy and brain scans. Usually, when ‘ring rust’ is mentioned around a fighter, it’s in reference to a year – two at a push – away from competition. In the case of mixed martial artists Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey, who meet at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on Saturday in Netflix’s first live MMA broadcast, the rust has been gathering for far longer. UFC Hall of Famer, Rousey (12-2, 9 submissions, 3 KOs) last competed in MMA in 2016, when she was beaten by Amanda Nunes in 48 seconds. Her opponent, Carano (7-1, 1 submission, 3 KOs), a pioneer of women’s MMA, last fought in 2009 when she suffered her first professional MMA defeat to Cris Cyborg in a headline event that was broadcast by a major national cable network (Showtime), putting women’s MMA on the map for the first ti...