Watch: When MMA fighter-turned-actress Gina Carano appeared on 'American Gladiators'

Before The Mandalorian made Gina Carano a household name, the former MMA fighter had appeared on multiple episodes of American Gladiators.

Carano had already starred in a few productions before she quit MMA after losing to Cris Cyborg in 2009 to pursue acting as her full-time career. She appeared under the nickname of 'Crush' on NBC's American Gladiators in one of her earliest television stints.

American Gladiators was a competitive television show that pitted amateur athletes against each other in various settings and obstacle courses. Occasionally, the amateurs also competed against the show's 'Gladiators', one of which was Gina Carano's 'Crush'.

In a 2012 interview with Slate, Gina Carano talked about her appearance on American Gladiators and how the name 'Crush' came about.

"At that time, there was a lot of coaxing that had to be done to get me to do it, and I’m really happy I did ’cause it gave me a ton of experience. But I really like acting and not having to be myself and actually get into a different character," said Gina Carano.

As for her name on the show, Carano said that it was chosen by the production team. They had a few options for her to choose from, most of which she found ridiculous. 'Crush' was the mellowest of the lot, so she went with that.

Watch Carano in an American Gladiators episode below:

As part of the American Gladiators team, Gina Carano also starred in a workout video alongside Monica Carlson (Jet), Jennifer Widerstrom (Phoenix), Michael O'Hearn (Titan), Tanoai Reed (Toa) and Don "Hollywood" Yates (Wolf). The DVD was for that season was released in December, 2008.

Throwback to the time Gina Carano hit a shoot sunset flip powerbomb on a 52-year-old woman pic.twitter.com/7QFUB6hQss

— Richard Mann (@RichardAMann) May 15, 2020

Six months after her appearance on the show, Gina Carano fought Cris Cyborg in the first ever women's bout to headline a major MMA event. Losing to Cyborg in round one of the fight, Gina Carano retired from the sport to focus on acting.

Steven Soderbergh's 2011 movie Haywire was Gina Carano's first big-screen appearance, followed by significant roles in Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Blood (2014), and Deadpool (2016).

However, her biggest and most-talked-about role till date was that of Carasynthia 'Cara' Dune, a former shock trooper in Disney Plus' Star Wars spinoff show The Mandalorian.

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Why was Gina Carano fired from The Mandalorian?

Despite being a massively popular character on the show, Gina Carano was fired by Lucasfilm over a series of offensive tweets and social media posts that kickstarted the #FireGinaCarano trend in February.

#FireGinaCarano is trending on Twitter after Gina Carano shared an IG story that compared being a Republican to being a Jew during the Holocaust pic.twitter.com/ji49k4sPWq

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) February 10, 2021

In a statement released following Carano's release, Lucasfilm cut all ties with the fighter-turned-actress and called her social media posts "abhorrent and unacceptable".

Disney CEO Bob Chapek also recently made a statement about her firing at their annual shareholder's meeting.