Most would agree that Cat Zingano, Miesha Tate and Sara McMann were Ronda Rousey’s most dangerous opponents on paper. However, a sleeping giant could lie inside of Bethe Correia, who is slated to challenge Rousey for the women’s bantamweight title at UFC 190 on Saturday.
The undefeated Brazilian contender is swelling with confidence a few days out from the biggest fight of her career. She enters this fight as a huge underdog to Rousey, who is easily one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world—male or female.
Despite the long odds, Correia is completely unfazed by the champ.
Some have stood strong in front of Rousey, while others have stood stoically. But we have never seen a contender get in Rousey’s face the way Correia did at the media staredown on Thursday.
To be fair, Rousey wasn‘t fazed either. The champ had the look of a stone-cold killer when posing for the media.
There have been some reservations about Correia’s chances on Saturday due to her lackluster resume as a bantamweight contender. She has yet to defeat a top-10 opponent in the division, and there really wasn’t anything spectacular about the three wins in the UFC that earned her the title shot. Furthermore, all of her UFC opponents have a combined UFC record of 1-7.
In his “Killing the Queen” piece, Fightland’s Jack Slack was brutally honest when breaking down Correia’s chances of defeating Rousey: “Is Bethe Correia the one to pull it off? Almost definitely not. … She doesn’t have one-punch finishing power—largely because she leans way forward at the waist and punches like she’s paddling a kayak—and the active footwork she would need to avoid Rousey‘s linear charges has so far not shown itself.”
You wouldn’t figure Correia to be an underdog when looking at her demeanor heading into UFC 190. That kind of confidence has to come from somewhere. Five other women have tried and failed to knock Rousey from her bantamweight throne.
Perhaps Correia really does have what it takes to pull off the unthinkable on Saturday.
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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