Bethe Correia got in Ronda Rousey’s face after weighing in Friday and growled at her.
“Don’t cry!” Correia screamed, in English, several times.
On Saturday night, Correia’s face was flat on the floor. And Rousey used those same words against her following a 34-second knockout in the main event of UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro.
“I said the exact same thing she was saying to me at weigh-ins,” Rousey said at the post-fight press conference. “You know, she was screaming in my face at weigh-ins. She was saying, ‘Don’t cry.’ So I turned around to her after I knocked her out and I said, ‘Don’t cry.'”
Rousey (12-0) retained her women’s bantamweight title and did it by playing Correia’s game. She got into a certifiable slugfest, ate some shots and then put the Brazilian to sleep with a right hand to the temple against the cage. The whole donnybrook took just over half a minute, a short amount of time except that it was more than double Rousey’s past two victories.
The fight was very personal to Rousey. Correia had already raised the champion’s ire by beating and then taunting Rousey’s good friends, Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler. She made things way, way worse by joking about suicide in May in an interview with Combate.
Correia said she hopes Rousey doesn’t kill herself after losing at UFC 190, referencing Rousey’s depression and substance abuse after the Olympics. Rousey’s father, Ron, committed suicide when Rousey was a child. Correia apologized and said she didn’t know how her father died. But Rousey didn’t buy it.
On Saturday night, the 28-year-old got her revenge and she doesn’t expect Correia to come knocking for the title again.
“I consider the matter settled and I’m not going to have to think about her ever again after this day,” Rousey said. “I’m sure she’ll have to think about me plenty. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over and done with.”