Gina Carano:
2007 Full-Contact Fighter of the Year
Gina Carano:
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Carano comes from a family of remarkable athletes. Her father, Glenn Carano, was a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, star quarterback. In the 1970s, he played for the Dallas Cowboys as backup quarterback behind the legendary Roger Staubach. Tall and lean, he shares with his daughter a face and physique that could have come from a Renaissance sculpture. Gina’s uncles are also athletic, each more than 6 feet tall, the kind of men you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. But Gina Carano doesn’t need her uncles for protection; she can take care of herself. The 24-year old Nevadan has made herself one of the best-known female faces in the predominantly male sport of mixed martial arts, where she’s garnered a 4-0 record. And she’s built a 12-1-1 record in muay Thai kickboxing. Even though she’s participated in the fight sports for a relatively short time, she’s inspired a new generation of female athletes to regard full-contact competition as something women can do, rather than just watch. Carano’s celebrity has stemmed in part from her appearances on historic televised fight cards and from coverage she’s received on high-profile TV shows. Her first MMA bout pitted her against Leiticia Pestova in the first women’s MMA match sanctioned by the Nevada State Boxing Commission. In February 2007, Carano showed up on Showtime in what was billed as the fight of the night—and she soundly defeated her foe, Julie Kedzie. It was the first time a women’s MMA event was televised on a premier cable network. Carano was also featured in the MSNBC documentary Warrior Nation and the independent film Ring Girls. The latter served as a catalyst for her role as a coach and mentor in Fight Girls, an Oxygen channel reality series that followed a squad of female kickboxers as they competed against each other to earn a spot on a fight card in Thailand. For those accomplishments and more, Gina Carano has been inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as 2007 Full-Contact Fighter of the Year. When asked how she feels to have joined the ranks of legends like Don Wilson, Jean-Yves Theriault, Kathy Long, Randy Couture, Ken Shamrock and Frank Shamrock, Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, she had the following to say: “I feel very honored and humbled about being included in the Black Belt Hall of Fame. Two of the greatest compliments this has given me is that readers voted for me and that I’ll be added to a Hall of Fame [filled with] names I respect and look up to. Thank you all for watching me and staying with me throughout my career. My goal in life is to follow what God’s plan is for me and allow him to shine his light through me. I cannot say where I will be in five years—scratch that, tomorrow—but I know that wherever you find me, I will remain true to myself with a genuine smile on my face and happiness in my heart. God bless, listen to your heart and never stop fighting for what you believe.” (This profile originally appeared in the December 2007 issue of Black Belt.) |
