The rookie case
2010 Leaf MMA #10
Leaf's 100-card unlicensed MMA set was built to cover fighters the Topps UFC licence could not touch — Fedor's first MMA card is in it — and Carano at #10 is the same story. It is the only base card she has in an MMA product, which is why so much of the market treats it as the rookie despite the absence of any RC designation.
Collectors are split on which Carano card is the rookie, and the split is on the record. Cardboard Connection's player guide calls the 2008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings card 'more popular' but names 2010 Leaf MMA #10 her de facto rookie, on the ground that it is her first card numbered as part of a base set; the 2008 Ring Kings card is nonetheless the earlier issue and is routinely graded and traded as her rookie. Neither card carries a printed RC logo, neither product is licensed by an MMA promotion, and no grader or database has settled it.
- Earliest licensed card2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings #RK-GC High confidence
- First MMA card2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings #RK-GC Probable
- First UFC cardNone documented Verified
- First certified autograph2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Signatures #RK-GC High confidence
- Recognized rookie card2010 Leaf MMA #10 Probable
The evidence behind each
- 2008Earliest licensed card — Cardboard Connection's Gina Carano player guide names '2008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings (#GC, #/500)' as her earliest card and describes the design; market listings render the same card as #RK-GC and show copies numbered out of 500. No earlier card of her is documented in any source.
- 2008First MMA card — Cardboard Connection's guide places the Ring Kings insert as her first card and treats it as an MMA issue. Her first card inside an MMA-branded product is 2010 Leaf MMA #10, from a 100-card base set that also carried no promotional licence. Neither EliteXC nor Strikeforce ever had a card programme.
- —First UFC card — Her professional MMA record runs through EliteXC and Strikeforce only. No Topps UFC product contains her; any listing claiming a Carano Topps UFC card is misdescribed.
- 2008First certified autograph — Cardboard Connection's guide records autographed Ring Kings versions numbered /492 and notes she signed with her nickname 'Conviction' rather than her full name; graded market copies confirm the /492 print run on the #RK-GC autograph.
- 2010Recognized rookie card — Cardboard Connection's player guide states: 'Many consider this as Gina Carano's defacto rookie card as it her first card numbered as part of a base set, though the Americana Ring Kings card is more popular.' Sports Card Radio's 2010 Leaf MMA checklist confirms Carano at #10 in a 100-card base set. No card of hers carries a printed RC logo, and SportsCardsPro's rookie field for the Leaf card reads No.
Key Carano cards
7 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.
Card history
Carano's first card is not an MMA card. Her EliteXC years produced nothing, and then in 2008 Donruss put her in Ring Kings, a 30-card combat-sports insert inside Americana II — a pop-culture product with no promotional marks — where she shares a checklist with Couture, St-Pierre, Bas Rutten and Bruce Buffer. The number is RK-GC, serial numbered to 500; Jeff Allender's checklist lists the insert 1-30 and puts her tenth, which is a position in that listing rather than the number on the card, and it is the commonest reason her cards are filed wrongly. Two further variants share the RK-GC number: a Cut Signatures parallel /100 and a National Convention promo.
Every Carano first happens inside that one insert. Ring Kings Signatures, numbered to 492, is her first certified autograph and remained her only one for four years; Ring Kings Signature Materials /400 pairs the signature with a swatch; and Ring Kings Materials, an unsigned relic numbered to just 5, is the scarcest card in her whole history — Donruss reversed the usual order and made the unsigned version rarer than the signed ones, which is why it gets missed by anyone searching only for autographs. Only one checklist records that /5, and neither source says whether her signature is on-card or on a sticker.
The biggest year of her career produced no cards at all. She headlined Strikeforce against Cris Cyborg on 15 August 2009, the first time women topped a major MMA card, in the same year Topps launched its UFC licence — a licence that could never cover her, because she never fought in the UFC. There is no Topps UFC Carano card of any kind. Leaf's unlicensed 100-card MMA set, out 22 September 2010, finally gave her a base card at #10; Cardboard Connection calls it her de facto rookie because it is her first card numbered inside a base set, while SportsCardsPro's rookie field for it reads 'No'. Nothing she has carries an RC logo.
After Haywire her signatures moved to entertainment products. 2012 Leaf Pop Century, an all-autograph celebrity set released 3 July 2012 with five cards to a box, carries her at Base Autographs #BA-GC1 with Silver, Blue and Gold 1/1 parallels. Then in 2020 Topps Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 1, out 4 November, printed her as Cara Dune at base #41 in a 100-card set and on a 19-card autograph checklist with parallels down to Black 1/1 — the only mainstream Topps product she has ever appeared in, and a Star Wars issue rather than a fighting one.
That leaves a card history where three issues are MMA cards and none of them is licensed by a promotion: a combat-sports insert in a celebrity product, an unlicensed Leaf set, and after that the cage gives way to Hollywood. Her 16 May 2026 return against Ronda Rousey at MVP MMA 1 has produced no card that can be confirmed.
Autographs
3 certified autographs in the archive.
Numbered & parallels
Serial-numbered cards and parallels with their own record.
Card eras
Her EliteXC run made her the most recognisable woman in the sport, but no card manufacturer had an MMA licence worth using and no Carano card was issued in this period.
Americana II's 30-card Ring Kings insert put her at #RK-GC alongside Couture, St-Pierre and Bas Rutten, and Donruss ran signature, memorabilia and signature-memorabilia versions of the same card. Everything collectors call a Carano first — first card, first autograph, first relic — happens inside this one insert.
She headlined Strikeforce against Cris Cyborg on 15 August 2009, the first time women topped a major MMA card, and lost by first-round TKO. Topps' UFC licence launched the same year and could not include her, so the biggest year of her career produced no new cards.
Leaf's unlicensed 100-card MMA set, out 22 September 2010, gave her #10 — her first card numbered as part of a base set and the one Cardboard Connection calls her de facto rookie.
After Haywire she moved into Leaf's celebrity products. Pop Century's Base Autographs #BA-GC1 is a hard-signed card in an all-autograph entertainment set, with Silver, Blue and Gold 1/1 parallels.
Topps Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 1 (4 November 2020) carried her as Cara Dune in the 100-card base set and in a 19-card autograph checklist with parallels down to Black 1/1. These are entertainment cards, not MMA cards, and they are the only mainstream Topps product she has ever appeared in.
She came back to fight Ronda Rousey at MVP MMA 1 on 16 May 2026 and lost by armbar in 17 seconds. No card product tied to the bout is documented.
Sets
Where Carano's key cards come from.
- 20082008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings1 key card
- 20082008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Signatures1 key card
- 20082008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Signature Materials1 key card
- 20082008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Materials1 key card
- 20102010 Leaf MMA1 key card
- 20122012 Leaf Pop Century1 key card
- 20202020 Topps Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 11 key card
Buying & wanted
- 012008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings Materials Gina Carano #/5 — the scarcest piece in her whole card history
- 022008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings Signature Materials Gina Carano #/400
- 032008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings Signatures Gina Carano #/492 — her first autograph card
- 042020 Topps Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 1 Gina Carano autograph, Gold #/10 or Black 1/1
Nothing from the archive is currently available.
Cards come and go one at a time. Selling one?
No FightCardboard verified sales recorded yet.
A verified sale is a transaction we completed or watched happen. Until there is one, there is nothing here to cite.
Sources & research Verified×1High confidence×7Probable×5
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
Gina Carano's rookie card: 2010 Leaf MMA #10 — Gina Carano.
Carano has no RC-designated card anywhere: she never fought in the UFC, so Topps' UFC licence never reached her, and neither of the products that carried her early — Donruss Americana II and Leaf MMA — is promotion-licensed or RC-flagged. The card that stands as her rookie is 2010 Leaf MMA #10. Cardboard Connection's player guide says 'Many consider this as Gina Carano's defacto rookie card as it her first card numbered as part of a base set, though the Americana Ring Kings card is more popular', and Cardbase's 2010 Leaf MMA checklist and SportsCardsPro's card page both place her at #10 in the 100-card base set. Her earliest card of any kind is two years older and is recorded separately as such: 2008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings #RK-GC, numbered to 500, the card more often slabbed and traded. Confidence is probable because collectors are genuinely split and SportsCardsPro's own rookie field for the Leaf card reads 'No'.
- 2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Materials, accessed September 23, 2026
- NS ListsAmericana II (Donruss) checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- SportsCardsProGina Carano #10 — 2010 Leaf MMA, accessed September 23, 2026
- WikipediaGina Carano, accessed September 23, 2026
- Cardbase (getcardbase.com)2010 Leaf MMA checklist — 2010 Leaf MMA #10 Gina Carano, accessed September 23, 2026
Carano's first card is not an MMA card. Her EliteXC years produced nothing, and then in 2008 Donruss put her in Ring Kings, a 30-card combat-sports insert inside Americana II — a pop-culture product with no promotional marks — where she shares a checklist with Couture, St-Pierre, Bas Rutten and Bruce Buffer. The number is RK-GC, serial numbered to 500; Jeff Allender's checklist lists the insert 1-30 and puts her tenth, which is a position in that listing rather than the number on the card, and it is the commonest reason her cards are filed wrongly. Two further variants share the RK-GC number: a Cut Signatures parallel /100 and a National Convention promo.
Every Carano first happens inside that one insert. Ring Kings Signatures, numbered to 492, is her first certified autograph and remained her only one for four years; Ring Kings Signature Materials /400 pairs the signature with a swatch; and Ring Kings Materials, an unsigned relic numbered to just 5, is the scarcest card in her whole history — Donruss reversed the usual order and made the unsigned version rarer than the signed ones, which is why it gets missed by anyone searching only for autographs. Only one checklist records that /5, and neither source says whether her signature is on-card or on a sticker.
The biggest year of her career produced no cards at all. She headlined Strikeforce against Cris Cyborg on 15 August 2009, the first time women topped a major MMA card, in the same year Topps launched its UFC licence — a licence that could never cover her, because she never fought in the UFC. There is no Topps UFC Carano card of any kind. Leaf's unlicensed 100-card MMA set, out 22 September 2010, finally gave her a base card at #10; Cardboard Connection calls it her de facto rookie because it is her first card numbered inside a base set, while SportsCardsPro's rookie field for it reads 'No'. Nothing she has carries an RC logo.
After Haywire her signatures moved to entertainment products. 2012 Leaf Pop Century, an all-autograph celebrity set released 3 July 2012 with five cards to a box, carries her at Base Autographs #BA-GC1 with Silver, Blue and Gold 1/1 parallels. Then in 2020 Topps Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 1, out 4 November, printed her as Cara Dune at base #41 in a 100-card set and on a 19-card autograph checklist with parallels down to Black 1/1 — the only mainstream Topps product she has ever appeared in, and a Star Wars issue rather than a fighting one.
That leaves a card history where three issues are MMA cards and none of them is licensed by a promotion: a combat-sports insert in a celebrity product, an unlicensed Leaf set, and after that the cage gives way to Hollywood. Her 16 May 2026 return against Ronda Rousey at MVP MMA 1 has produced no card that can be confirmed.
2010 Leaf MMA #10 — Gina Carano.
2008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings #RK-GC — Gina Carano.
2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Signatures #RK-GC — Gina Carano.
2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Signature Materials #RK-GC — Gina Carano.
2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Materials #RK-GC — Gina Carano.
2012 Leaf Pop Century #BA-GC1 — Gina Carano.
2020 Topps Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 1 #41 — Gina Carano.