Gina Carano may have lost to Ronda Rousey in just 17 seconds, but according to the women’s MMA pioneer herself, one conversation with Jon Jones completely changed her perspective on the defeat.

Following the Netflix main event, Carano admitted she was extremely devastated after tapping to Rousey’s armbar so quickly. In a lengthy Instagram post reflecting on her fight, the 44-year-old stated that ‘Bones’ and Cain Velasquez approached her table after the fight and helped her get out of that mindset.

“@jonnybones & @officialcainvelasquez came up to my table after the fight,” she wrote in the caption. “They set my mind straight. Jon said, ‘You haven’t fought in 17 years? Do you know how big your b–ls have to be to get back in there after that long? Did you set some sort of record or something? Respect!🤣 That’s exactly what I needed to hear from the best to ever to do it.”

Honestly, it’s easy to see why those remarks hit so hard, considering her long and arduous road back. ‘Conviction’ admitted that her journey back to fighting after an almost 17-year hiatus was physically taxing even before she entered the cage.

“I’ve been in a caloric deficit for a year, training felt like swimming as hard as I could upstream,” she continued. “I can count on two hands the number of times I felt good training.

“It was physically the hardest thing I’ve ever done, taking the weight off while turning back into an athlete.”

She even compared herself to a “science experiment” due to the difficulty of the mental and physical transition.

Even though the comeback ended almost immediately, Gina Carano sounded proud rather than defeated at the end of her statement. She praised Ronda Rousey while describing the event as one of the best of her life.

“I’m so glad the world got to experience this version of @rondarousey,” she added. “I found a beautiful woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, and legend. I adore you lady.

“We made history again. I hope @mostvaluablepromotions MMA @netflix continue on because they CRUSHED it.”

To make things even more interesting, ‘Conviction’ even suggested that this was not the end of her athletic career. After everything she went through to make the fight happen, simply walking into that cage again may have already felt like a victory in itself. However, the quick and anticlimactic finish after a long build-up will likely still sting, especially given Gina Carano knows exactly what led her to the swift end.

Gina Carano explains what went wrong in the Ronda Rousey fight

That honesty is most likely why the defeat has not been mocked by the MMA community. Gina Carano didn’t hide behind excuses. Instead, she openly admitted that one bad decision at the very start of the bout completely affected the outcome against Ronda Rousey.

After more than a year of rebuilding her body and preparing for her comeback, the 44-year-old admitted she threw the wrong strike at the wrong time.

“I felt locked in fight night,” she wrote in the caption. “No fear, just focused positive adrenaline. Love to my team. My heart is heavy, I wanted to throw, battle, win. But I kicked when I should have moved and was down and done.”

That split-second choice allowed Ronda Rousey to quickly close the distance, secure the takedown, and move the fight into the exact position where the former UFC champion has always been most dangerous.

From there, things swiftly escalated. Gina Carano briefly tried to threaten with a guillotine choke, but ‘Rowdy’ calmly escaped and transitioned straight into her signature armbar that ended the fight.

The scary part is that ‘Conviction’ says the finish was even worse than it looked on television.

“If I hadn’t tapped she would’ve broken my arm, as it had begun to crackle,” she admitted. “The disappointment of losing like that is very humbling.”

That is why, despite the disappointment, there does not seem to be much regret on her part in how she handled the ending itself. The regret stems from the tactical error that changed the course of the fight. Against someone like Ronda Rousey, one wrong movement is often all it takes, and Gina Carano realized this only seconds after the fight began.