It feels like another day at the office as Ronda Rousey prepares to defend her UFC title against Bethe Correia at UFC 190.
The reigning champ is expected to waltz right into the HSBC Arena in Rio on Saturday, toss Correia on her head and wrench her arm into submission. Then she might go shoot a movie after that and come back to meet Miesha Tate for a third time.
Needless to say, Correia is a huge underdog heading into this fight. One could make an argument that this is the most lopsided pairing ever between a contender and UFC champion.
Correia has never been defeated in her MMA career, but she has also never competed against a top-10 opponent. Not to mention, all three of the opponents she has faced in the UFC have a combined UFC record of 1-7.
Surely you’ve already heard the lopsided statistical breakdown by now. On paper, there is nothing closer to a sure thing than Rousey handing Correia her first loss tomorrow night. But paper predictions aren’t ironclad. They aren’t always a lock.
What if Correia pulled off the unthinkable? What if she actually defeated Rousey for the UFC women’s bantamweight title?
Fox Sports analyst Kenny Florian, who recently spoke with MMAFighting.com, said Correia beating Rousey would be the biggest upset in UFC history:
Honestly, I think it would be the biggest upset in UFC history. When you look at what Ronda has done, her skill level and [experience] compared to what Bethe has, or what we think she has, yeah, it would absolutely be the biggest upset. But for Ronda, we’re tuning in to see domination. We’re tuning to see destruction.
Correia’s confidence certainly isn’t lacking, despite the long odds. She was in the champ’s face talking more smack than all of the previous contenders combined at Friday’s weigh-ins.
As clichéd as it sounds, anything can happen in MMA. Georges St-Pierre and Matt Serra would both vouch for that.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.
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