If UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey can defeat Bethe Correia on Saturday at UFC 190 in Brazil, she already knows who she’ll be fighting next. On Saturday, Miesha Tate scored a dominant unanimous-decision victory over Jessica Eye. It would be the third time Rousey and Tate will have locked horns with the champion having won the previous two meetings.
Rousey is a huge 15-1 favorite, per Odds Shark, to beat Correia despite the fact that the fight will take place in the challenger’s home country of Brazil.
Correia is a pure striker with heart, but no one’s ever truly tested her in the Octagon. Despite her 9-0 record, Correia doesn’t even have a win over a fighter currently ranked in the UFC’s Top 15.
Rousey has beaten any and every challenger in her division, and that includes half of the Top 10. She’s been so dominant it’s gotten to the point that we’re forced to look outside the promotion, weight class and even gender and sport for a formidable challenger.
Both Rousey and Correia have traded barbs. Rousey has expressed her desire to punish Correia “in the most devastating way possible,” per the video below from FightHype.com:
Does Correia have a real chance to win? You’ll have a hard time finding anyone who thinks the challenger can win. MMAjunkie’s Ben Fowlkes called it a “squash match.”
Steve Rondina of Bleacher Report thinks the result will be purely academic. He wrote: “Rousey will defeat Correia with ease. That is pretty much a guarantee. The only question is if this victory will be a quick, efficient fight, as it was with Alexis Davis and Cat Zingano, or if it will be a prolonged, sadistic beating like what we saw in her fight against Miesha Tate.”
Even the most imaginative pundit would have to stretch the truth to find a compelling argument in favor of Correia. Rousey is a better athlete, longer and just as ferocious as her.
That doesn’t even begin to address the epic advantage Rousey would have if the fight spills onto the canvas. There’s literally no fighter in the world Correia could have in her camp to simulate Rousey‘s judo throws and submissions.
Expect Rousey to put on a show with a well-balanced and methodical dismantling of Correia.
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