You’re in an arena. The lights go out. Thousands begin to cheer and thousands begin to boo, but no one is silent. The atmosphere livens up when Joan Jett’s iconic rasp begins belting out “Bad Reputation.” An attractive, intimidating woman emerges in a spotlight with a focused scowl visible beneath the hood of a black sweatshirt and giant headphones wrapped around her neck.
You’re about to see something special.
That’s exactly what fans can expect Saturday when Ronda Rousey looks to defend her women’s bantamweight title against Bethe Correia in the main event at UFC 190 in Rio De Janeiro.
When Rousey fights, the world stops. Despite only joining the UFC in 2013, she has become the biggest international star the organization boasts. She recently won two ESPY Awards — edging out and throwing serious shade at Floyd Mayweather in the Best Fighter category and beating tennis superstar Serena Williams for Best Female Athlete — and on Saturday she’ll be a worldwide trending topic when, not if, she embarrasses Correia.
In an unpredictable sport like mixed martial arts, “sure things” are few and far between yet Rousey not only defeating but finishing Correia seems a forgone conclusion.
Correia is 9-0 in MMA and her last two outings were convincing victories over Rousey’s teammates and close friends Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler. Sure, the Brazilian is a decent striker by women’s bantamweight division standards – which actually isn’t saying much – but she only has two stoppage wins in her career. Simply put, Correia can’t bust a grape. Catching Rousey with a concussion-inducing punch is really her only chance. However, she doesn’t have one-punch knockout power and she’s too slow. Therefore, she has no chance. (MMA math isn’t an exact science but I’m confident in my calculations here.)
To make things worse, this fight isn’t merely a form of athletic competition or a way for Rousey to earn some money. It’s personal.
In the lead-up to the fight, Correia told Brazil’s Combate: “I want to humiliate her and show the world she has no MMA. She is focused on movies, books. I am much stronger, I come from a developing country where people are struggling to survive, not to starve.”
Typical pre-fight trash talk, but then she crossed a line.
“Under pressure, she is proving weak. When her mom put pressure on her, she ran away from home. When she lost [in judo competition], it was because of drugs. That’s not a superhero. She is not mentally healthy. She needs to take care of herself. She is winning, so everybody is around her cheering her up, but when she realizes she is not everything that she believes she is, I don’t know what might happen. I hope she does not kill herself later on.”
Rousey’s backstory is widely known and one of the well-documented tragedies she has overcome is the fact her father committed suicide when Rousey was a child.
The 28-year-old Olympic bronze medal-winning judoka is admittedly a vindictive person. If you wronged her in some way she will not forget. Although Correia later backtracked and insisted her words were not meant to be taken as a direct reference to the death of Rousey’s father – I’d like to give Correia the benefit of the doubt and believe her in this case – Rousey doesn’t believe her and aims to embarrass Correia in front of her Brazilian people.
“If I beat you quickly, that’s me at my nicest and most merciful,” Rousey told TMZ in a recent interview. “That means you get to go home unscathed with a paycheque.”
She must really love her last three opponents then because she finished Cat Zingano, Alexis Davis and Sara McMann in a combined 96 seconds.
“If I make the fight last longer, that means I don’t like you and I want you to go home looking different than the way you walked in. And I don’t like this chick,” Rousey added.
Rousey sends a message to her division every time she fights, but this time is slightly different.
“I have to beat this girl so thoroughly so that there’s no future girls that pick on my family in order to get a quicker title shot,” Rousey told media in Rio De Janeiro ealier this week. “Pick on me all you want, but leave them out of it. That’s what I really want to accomplish.”
Not that Rousey needed any more motivation to dismantle Correia, but news broke Friday that professional wrestling legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper died at age 61 of cardiac arrest.
Rousey got her “Rowdy” nickname from the wrestling great, who was one of her idols growing up. She has dedicated her performance to him.
One of the plethora of great quotes from Roddy Piper over the years was: “You don’t throw rocks at a man with a machine gun.”
At UFC 190, Correia will be the one throwing the proverbial rocks and Rousey will be waiting.