How big of a star, really, is Ronda Rousey? We’ll find out this Saturday at UFC 190, when she faces one of the biggest challenges of her career.
Wait, wait. Did you think I meant Bethe Correia? Oh, reader. Now you’re just being silly.
With apologies to Conor McGregor, Rousey appears to be the biggest MMA celebrity going. She might be the best crossover success story in the young history of the sport. So Rousey has bigger fights than, you know, another fighter.
This is the woman who is 11-0, who has defended her UFC women’s bantamweight title five consecutive times. Average duration of those five bouts? Three minutes and 28 seconds. Her last two fights were done in less than 20 ticks of the old stopwatch.
So it’s not a surprise that she’s currently a massive favorite to upset Correia, a game but relatively unexceptional fighter who let her mouth write a big check that her backside is now going to have to cash.
All of that’s to say the fight isn’t the challenge for Rousey. It’s carrying a pay-per-view. The rest of this card, which, thanks to visa difficulties, doubles as the finale for the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil (yes, there is a fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil), is empty. And I don’t mean “for a pay-per-view.” It’s barren like a FedEx Field parking lot in January. Zing!
Can Rousey single-handedly cause a card to succeed? That’s what the UFC is guessing. We’ll see when the final estimates come out. Interesting fights can still happen despite the lack of immediate title implications, big names and the like, so let us delve in.
What fights could be interesting? Which ones can you skip? Who are these people? All that, plus predictions and viewing coordinates here in your complete guide to the action.
As always, all records courtesy of Sherdog.com.