Carano talks about Elite XC first show, her future and much more!
PC: Congratulations on a great showing. How do you feel about your performance?
GC: I feel good about it. I feel like it was really good for female MMA fights on T.V. I’m glad it went that way. I also know I’m capable of doing a lot better and I just know I can get off and be a little bit more aggressive. I was playing it a little bit safe and being a little conservative and I need to get back in the gym and start training the way I’m going to fight. I feel good about the performance. I think it gives people an idea to where female MMA is all about. I feel I could do a lot better.
PC: A-F, how do you grade your performance?
GC: How about 1-10? That’s better for me (laughing).
PC: Ok 1-10.
GC: I think I put on maybe a 5 or 6. I feel like I could do a lot more, you know what I mean? The show was big and there was like… I don’t know. It was a first time for me and I know I can do better.
PC: I know you had the jitters and it was a very big stage. How does it feel to get that first Elite XC fight under your belt?
GC: Oh, it feels so good and especially to fight Julie. To have Julie fight with her whole heart and the way it went, it was perfect. It feels good that it’s out of the way and now I can prepare for the next one, you know? It feels great. I feel really good.
PC: When would you like to fight again?
GC: I think I’m going to be fighting in June. That’s the next Pro Elite card. It was going to be in May and then they switched it to June, so I don’t know. I would like to fight every month, that would be nice, but I have to check with Pro Elite first.
PC: You seemed so much bigger than Julie in the fight. Did you figure you would be the bigger woman therefore your plan was to press the action and bully her?
GC: Yeah. She had a lot of experience in the cage, so I tried to be stronger and be bigger and kind of a bully. Whenever I get in the ring or the cage with someone I try and fill them out first and see what they are going to do and kind of go from there. You never know once you get in there what’s going to happen.
PC: Everyone knows you have nasty hands, but you handled yourself well on the ground. How hard had you been working on your ground game?
GC: I was working on it every day. I’ve been working a lot of jiu jitsu, Muay Thai and boxing. I’m going to try and go over to a MMA gym in Las Vegas and have somebody put it all together for me. I got out of a lot of situations and you can tell by watching the fight I wanted to keep it standing.
PC: When she took your back she had a pretty good grip on that rear naked choke and you got out of it well.
GC: Well that’s females. Females just know how to get out of bad situations. I remember that. I think it was the third round and she got me in a bad situation and I remember being like, “Ok I don’t want to be on the ground anymore.” I just stood up and popped her while she was still down there. My mom was laughing at that one. My mom thought she had enough.
PC: Julie was definitely a tough girl because she took a lot of punishment from you.
GC: She’s a great girl. She has a really awesome and positive personality and she’s a good fighter and a good person.
PC: When did it set in that you were on Showtime in a showcase fight and what did that mean to you?
GC: It still probably hasn’t really set in yet. It was such a big movement for me; it hasn’t even set in yet.
PC: Many people felt you ladies had the fight of the night. What did you think about the rest of the card?
GC: There are so many fighters on the card that I respect and that I look up to, so it was just an honor to be a part of it. I can’t really speak on the other fights because I’m so selfish that I just fight. I get so nervous that I don’t want to see any fights before mine and then after the fights you’re kind of detoxing. I haven’t really had a chance to see the fights, but I’ve had people come up to me and say that our fight was the fight of the night. I don’t know. I would have to see the rest of the fights. I really respect all the fighters that were on the card though. It was an honor just to be there.
PC: Julie was a tough girl, but was there any point in the fight that you thought you could’ve finished her?
GC: Yeah. It was a couple of times. For whatever reason I didn’t. I kind of held back and that was probably just my trying to fight safe and conservative and just make sure I win the fight. In the third round I had more defense than she did. She came out swinging. I didn’t want her to get me on the ground again and get submitted by something stupid. I had the fight won already. That’s going to change though because… I don’t know, the first Showtime fight is done and I’m just looking for the next one.
PC: You are very popular in the MMA circle right now. Do you think you could do for woman’s MMA what Christy Martin and Laila Ali has done for boxing?
GC: Honestly that’s all up to God. That’s up to the big man. If he wants me to have that kind of influence on people and take this sport to that level, then God’s great. I’ll follow his lead. That’s really how I feel about it.
PC: A lot is made about your looks and you are a very attractive girl. When do you think it will come to a point where your looks aren’t mentioned at all and it’s just about your fighting ability?
GC: Maybe when I get popped in the nose and I’m bleeding all over the place and I look in the camera like, “What, how you like me know!” I’m just me; whatever people like to identify me by that’s fine. I’m not going to try and be something I’m not. One second they love you and then the next it’s she looks like a man and I hate her. I’m not going to pay too much attention to that from now on I think.
PC: Could you tell us about your role in Fight Girls 2?
GC: I’m kind of like mentoring and training with the girls and helping Master Toddy train them for their fights. It’s going to be 10 girls that get eliminated down to about 5 and there’s going to be fights every week. I will be a big part of that. Helping the girls train and helping Master Toddy. It’s going to be really awesome. I’m excited about it. It starts in a week in a half and we’ll be filming in March and April and it will probably come out in July. I’m really excited because we have a bunch of girls and we’re all going to be training together and I’ll be training for my fight in June. It’s going to be fun. You get to meet new people and go to Thailand; it’s going to be awesome.
PC: I appreciate your time Gina. Thanks for a great fight. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
GC: Thank you to everybody that is being real positive towards me right now. I want to thank all of the media and Xyience for sponsoring me. I love my family and I’m coming home very soon, so we could spend more time together and enjoy each other more.
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