The earliest card
2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings #10
The first Gina Carano card, issued while she was still EliteXC's biggest draw and a year before the Cyborg fight. Ring Kings was a 30-card combat-sports insert inside a celebrity product, so she shares the checklist with Couture, St-Pierre, Bas Rutten and Bruce Buffer rather than with a fighter set. It is also the only Carano issue that predates the Topps UFC era entirely.
Sources disagree on which card is her rookie and, separately, on the Ring Kings card number. Cardboard Connection lists the insert as 'Gina Carano #GC' (initials style, which matches eBay listings rendering it RK-GC) while Jeff Allender's checklist numbers the Ring Kings insert 1–30 and places Carano at 10. Both numbers are recorded rather than a choice being made silently.
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 rendered two ways: Jeff Allender's checklist numbers the insert 1-30 and puts her at 10, while Cardboard Connection and most sellers write #GC or RK-GC. A Directors Cut version /100 exists alongside it.
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 #10 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 was confirmed in this research pass.
Parallels of this card
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 this archive in the vault right now. Selling one?
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 earliest card: 2008 Donruss Americana II #10 — Gina Carano.
Carano has no RC-designated card anywhere. She never fought in the UFC, so Topps' 2009 UFC licence never covered her, and neither of the two products that did carry her early — Donruss Americana II and Leaf MMA — is MMA-licensed or RC-flagged. The 2008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings card is her earliest licensed card by two years, so it is filed as the earliest card rather than a rookie. Collectors are genuinely split: Cardboard Connection's player guide calls the Ring Kings card 'more popular' but names 2010 Leaf MMA #10 her 'defacto rookie card as it is her first card numbered as part of a base set', while SportsCardsPro's data field for that Leaf card reads 'No' for rookie status even though its own sales listings routinely say RC.
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 rendered two ways: Jeff Allender's checklist numbers the insert 1-30 and puts her at 10, while Cardboard Connection and most sellers write #GC or RK-GC. A Directors Cut version /100 exists alongside it.
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.
2008 Donruss Americana II #10 — Gina Carano.
2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Signatures #10 — Gina Carano.
2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Signature Materials #10 — Gina Carano.
2008 Donruss Americana II — Ring Kings Materials #10 — Gina Carano.
2010 Leaf MMA #10 — Gina Carano.
2012 Leaf Pop Century #BA-GC1 — Gina Carano.
2020 Topps Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 1 #41 — Gina Carano.