Gina Carano enters her fight against Ronda Rousey on Saturday having spent the past year fighting a very different kind of battle. In 2021, ‘The Mandalorian’ star was fired by Lucasfilm, a Disney unit, over her social media post comparing the treatment of conservatives in the US to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.
The former MMA star, with financial backing from billionaire Elon Musk, subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal court in California, alleging wrongful termination and discrimination. In August 2025, the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement. The 44-year-old reflected on her lawsuit against Disney at the Netflix pre-fight press conference ahead of her fight with Ronda Rousey. She expressed no regret over the stance that cost her one of the most prominent roles of her career.
“I took heat for standing up for freedom of speech in this country,” Carano said during the presser. “I don’t apologize one bit for anything that I said. I was spot on. I look back, and I have so much confidence in myself because everything that I said came true. Everything that I said happened. Everybody was holding their breath, and I didn’t. I’m usually the one that is really relaxed and calm.
“But I stood up, and I spoke out, and I paid a heavy price for it. But I’d pay that price again, because we cannot let what was happening to this country happen again. We cannot let go of our freedom of speech, even if you don’t like it. We need to be able to speak to one another, we need to open up speech, and we can’t lose our rights.”
Gina Carano had built a significant acting career following her MMA days, culminating in her role as Cara Dune in Disney’s The Mandalorian. However, after her posts drew backlash and Disney severed ties with her, her talent agency, UTA, dropped her as well.
As a result, the former Strikeforce fighter maintained her stance that the company discriminated against her and wrongfully terminated her from the role, leading her to file a lawsuit against Disney in February 2024. With Musk’s backing, she powered through her lawsuit, eventually reaching a settlement last year.
“So, I mean, you know, there’s been people that have been fired that I don’t agree with their opinion, but I don’t think they should be fired,” Carano added in the presser. “I don’t think we should take their livelihood from them. We should be able, in America, to set the precedent of freedom. And I’m not sorry one bit, and it turned out well. Disney settled, and I’m proud of that. That was a huge victory for me.”
While Gina Carano had her issues with Disney, things weren’t the same when it came to her relationship with the creators of the hit show.
Gina Carano speaks about her relationship with The Mandalorian’s creators during the lawsuit
While the lawsuit was ongoing, ‘Conviction’ was able to have conversations with the makers of The Mandalorian. According to reports, showrunner Jon Favreau played a major role in Carano’s casting for the series, and she also had positive interactions with Dave Filoni during the legal battle with Disney on a Zoom call.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Carano revealed that both of them had always been very respectful toward her.
“I think it was, ‘Let’s touch base,’” Carano said. “Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were two people that I always respected, and we went through two seasons together, and we had a great relationship. And even during everything that was happening, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau were never the bad guys to me.”
This detail underscores how she separated her grievance with Disney’s corporate decision-making from the creative team she had worked alongside on the show.
Gina Carano steps into Saturday’s fight carrying both the momentum of the legal settlement and the profile that comes with it. Whether the occasion translates into a broader return to acting is an open question, but her presence on Netflix’s first MMA card has put her back in front of an audience she had largely stepped away from.
