5 Things You Didn’t Know About Gina Carano’s MMA Career
3. Carano Struggled With Weight Issues Throughout Her Career
One of the rarely discussed parts of Carano's MMA legacy was her inability to make weight.
In total, the Hollywood starlet had eight professional mixed martial arts fights. Four of those contests would go down as catchweight bouts due to Carano's struggles on the scales.
When she fought Rose Sexton and Kaitlyn Young respectively, she was a whopping four-and-a-half pounds overweight.
It should be noted, Elite XC, the promotion she spent the majority of her career fighting for, created a special 140-pound weight class to assist the then-rising star. Traditionally, bantamweight is 135 pounds, while featherweight is 145.
However, despite the special accommodations, Carano still missed weight three times thereafter.
Carano's 7-1 professional record is impressive, and her status as an MMA pioneer is beyond question. That being said, the fact that she had a (sometimes very significant) size advantage heading into half of her fights is an important footnote when examining her career.