It's official.
UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will defend her title against Bethe Correia in the main event of UFC 190 on Saturday. Both women weighed in successfully (Rousey 135 at and Correia at 134, per the UFC live stream) and the fight is on. You can watch the weigh-in and post-event comments in the video from the UFC below:
The War of Words
The back-and-forth between Rousey and Correia will likely continue up to their bout on Saturday. These two don't seem to like each other and it's not all about the hype.
What started out as a normal call out from a challenger to a champion has taken on a different tone. Correia owns wins over Rousey's close friends Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler, which led to her calling out Rousey. The champion accepted and said that she wanted to beat the Brazilian in front of her people in Brazil.
Apparently, Correia didn't take too kindly to that trash talk. She took things to the next level and began to mention details about Rousey's personal life. Correia targeted Rousey's previous drug use and her time as a runaway.
What really struck a nerve were Correia's comments related to suicide. Correia said, "I hope that when I beat her, she doesn't kill herself." Because Rousey's father committed suicide, the champion felt the comments were out of bounds. She has sworn to punish Correia for her poor choice of words.
Despite Correia's apologies and her saying she didn't know about the champion's father, Rousey has been unrelenting in her stance. The UFC chronicled the entire path to Saturday's main event and the war of words in the video below:
Prediction
Barring something completely unforeseen, Rousey will defeat Correia. No opponent has ever gone the distance with Rousey and Correia probably won't be the first. The Brazilian is an aggressive striker, which could lead to early problems if she is over aggressive.
Rousey's striking has advanced hugely over the last two years and her grappling has always been world class. She looks to be better than her opponent in every way. The only logical prediction is Rousey by TKO or submission in the first round.
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