UFC 190 is Saturday night. That sentence isn’t exactly exciting without context. UFC holds a pay-per-view on a monthly basis and a number of cable TV events. The level of mainstream attention given to the MMA world depends wholly on the names on the marquee.
Luckily, UFC 190 has the biggest star of the show taking the big stage.
Ronda Rousey will square off against Bethe Correia in the night’s main event, marking her sixth bout since joining the UFC in 2013. Over those two years, Rousey has risen from semi-obscurity to one of the biggest faces in sports. She’s been on the cover of countless magazines, thrown consistent verbal barbs in the direction of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and even appeared at WrestleMania.
Oh, and she’s super awesome at her job. Only one of Rousey‘s 11 previous professional fights have made it out of the first round. She’s gone a combined 30 seconds in her last two wins, and eight of her bouts have lasted under a minute. Rousey talked about those quick finishes, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports:
I think it’s gotten to the point where people are becoming aware that this is a very, very special time. And if they decide to do something else that day, it’s going to be a moment that they could have witnessed and didn’t. I’m not going to call it and say oh, this fight’s going to end in under 20 seconds because I’m not. Those fights that ended that quickly, I did not intend for them to end that quickly. It’s just that’s how it ended up because I improvise while I’m out there.
Like the challengers that came before, Correia boasts an impressive resume coming into Saturday. She’s undefeated in her nine career fights, including three impressive wins since joining the UFC. The 32-year-old has only two career knockouts, but she specializes in defeating her opponents with top-notch technique and in-ring smarts. Correia talked about going up against Rousey, per Martin:
I can go in there and beat her. Even in the interview she did recently where she said she was going to use me as an example of what not to do for the other girls coming up—it’s something she’s trying to make herself seem so dangerous and make people fear her in a way. She’s trying to create this illusion around herself, and it’s making me want to go out there and do justice for everyone else.
To be fair, Rousey‘s performances have backed up the “illusion” of her unbeatability. There has never been a more dominant in-ring competitor than Rousey; she’s playing on a different field than her competitors every time she steps into the Octagon. Odds Shark currently places the odds of Rousey winning the fight at 1-14, which means you’d have to bet $1,400 to win a measly $100.
For comparison, Vegas Insider currently has Mayweather as a 1-45 favorite for his upcoming bout with Andre Berto. Given MMA’s tendency for more flukey results—even the all-time greats have been undone by one small mistake—it’s fair to say Rousey and Mayweather stand alone on their respective platforms.
If Rousey‘s name on the marquee wasn’t enough to sell the fight—and it is—the UFC 190 fight card is loaded with six fights before the main event. Mauricio Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will fight in light heavyweight action, two finals from The Ultimate Fighter 4 will be decided, and a pair of rising heavyweight bouts will also take place. The women’s strawweight championship eliminator between Jessica Aguilar and Claudia Gadelha should give the night another solid women’s bout.
For a promotion that once vehemently denounced women’s mixed martial arts, it’s amazing that Rousey has blazed this path in such a short time. It’s fair to wonder if any of these women would be getting the chance they will get going forward without her.
On Saturday, we’ll see if one of them can knock her off her throne.
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