UFC 190 combatants take to the scale to make weight on Friday afternoon.
Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey headlines against undefeated challenger Bethe Correia, and the fight has gotten personal. The two already had an intense staredown at the pre-fi…
UFC 190 combatants take to the scale to make weight on Friday afternoon.
Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey headlines against undefeated challenger Bethe Correia, and the fight has gotten personal. The two already had an intense staredown at the pre-fight press conference. Now they must tip the scale to make their fight official.
Both Nogueira brothers are on this card, as Antonio Rodrigo will fight Stefan Struve and Antonio Rogerio will face off against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. The main card is a seven-fight event.
Bleacher Report will be here to cover all the weigh-in happenings Friday afternoon. The weigh-ins get underway at 5:00 p.m. ET. Check back for full coverage.
Ronda Rousey will defend her UFC women’s bantamweight title on Saturday night in Brazil against Bethe Correia in the main event of UFC 190. This is a grudge match as the two women have traded mean-spirited comments at one another over the past month. T…
Ronda Rousey will defend her UFC women’s bantamweight title on Saturday night in Brazil against Bethe Correia in the main event of UFC 190. This is a grudge match as the two women have traded mean-spirited comments at one another over the past month. That trend continued at Thursday’s press event, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports.
It’ll all come to a head on Saturday night.
In the co-feature, Brazilian legends Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will renew acquaintances. The two men battled in one of the sport’s most legendary contests when both were in PRIDE back in 2005. Rua won a hard-fought unanimous decision, but it was a back-and-forth battle.
Fans and the UFC are hoping Rua and Nogueira pick up where they left off 10 years ago.
When: Saturday, August 1 at 7 p.m. ET
Where:HSBC Arena in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil
TV: Fox Sports 1 for preliminaries, PPV for main card
Here’s a look at the complete card with predictions for each bout.
Rousey Will Punish Correia
Correia is not backing down from Rousey and she deserves credit for her courage, but the bravado will be short-lived. Amanda Salvato of the UFC spoke with Correia about her preparation for the biggest fight of her life.
There is really no conceivable way Correia can defeat the champion. Barring something completely crazy like Rousey slipping on the Octagon steps, or getting her foot caught on the cage during the bout, Correia will lose.
It’s really just a matter of how badly and in what manner she’ll be beaten. While Correia is a good striker with accuracy at 55 percent, she’s never had to throw hands with an opponent who could make her pay in as many ways as Rousey can.
Whether it’s with a counter from her ever-improving striking, or a nasty judo takedown, Correia‘s margin for error is about as slim as Christian Bale in The Machinist. Correia doesn’t have the power to make the few opportunities she might have during stand-up exchanges count.
Thus she has to fight the perfect fight just to keep it competitive. That won’t happen. She’ll be wiped out by a determined and destructive Rousey in the first round.
Little Nog Will Win the Rematch
Quite honestly, the battle between Rua and Nogueira is a matchup between two shot fighters at the end of their careers. That might sound like a downer for a potentially amazing fight, but it’s the truth. Andrew Richardson of MMA Mania is blunt and truthful about the dynamics of this bout:
He’s [Rua] lost four of his last five bouts and was finished in three of those losses, meaning even his once iron chin has started to crack. If the Brazilian can’t get a victory here, he may be at the end of his career. If Nogueira were to remain healthy for more than a few months a time, he’d likely be on a similar slide to “Shogun.” Regardless, the younger Nogueira brother also really needs this victory, otherwise he’ll be in Rua‘s current position.
Rua is only 33 years old, but with 32 professional fights and a good number of wars during his career, he’s a shell of the guy he used to be.
Nogueira is 39 and he’s been in his share of bloody battles as well. His speed and defensive instincts have declined noticeably.
With all that said, this fight should still be spectacular. Both guys are proud Brazilians who will want nothing more than to put on a show in front of their countrymen. Expect a stand-up war and a victory by Nogueira.
He’s always been the more technically sound striker and despite being older than Rua, Little Nog likely has more tread remaining on his tires.
Magny Will Score the Biggest Win on the Card
Demian Maia will not want to lose in front of his people, but Neil Magny won’t give him another choice. The American has won seven fights in a row and he’s the most improved fighter in the promotion over the last three years.
His wrestling and submissions skills have grown by leaps and bounds. He used a dominant ground game in his last two fights that resulted in stoppage wins over HyunGyuLim and KiichiKunimoto. Magny is also blessed with an extraordinary 80″ reach that makes it difficult to out-strike him.
Maia might be the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu artist in the sport, but his striking isn’t on par with Magny‘s. Because of Magny‘s constant improvement on the ground, Maia doesn’t hold a significant advantage there. Magny will win this one by one-sided unanimous decision or second-round TKO.
Apparently, Ronda Rousey isn’t the only one with a fight fan for a mother.
Bethe Correia, Rousey’s opponent in the main event of UFC 190, said her mom, Tiana, recently had some pretty hard-nosed advice for her daughter, according to a report from Guilh…
Apparently, Ronda Rousey isn’t the only one with a fight fan for a mother.
Bethe Correia, Rousey‘s opponent in the main event of UFC 190, said her mom, Tiana, recently had some pretty hard-nosed advice for her daughter, according to a report from Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting:
My mother told me…‘Please, finish this fight in 10 seconds. Knock her out, break her jaw.’ It’s a mom thing. No mom wants to see a daughter get beat up, get hurt, and Ronda’s mom thinks about it. It’s easier to go for a takedown and lock an armbar, you don’t get hurt. My mom wants me to go there, throw the first punch, Ronda goes down, and I go back to her arms. It’s normal.
Correia made the comments Thursday at a media event in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil, where the two will fight Saturday for Rousey‘s women’s bantamweight title.
Famously, Rousey‘s mother, AnnMaria De Mars, likes to get involved in her daughter’s strategizing—and sometimes even backs up Ronda during public trash-talk sessions.
De Mars was a high-level judoka in her own right, and she introduced the sport to Rousey, who went on to win an Olympic bronze medal in the discipline.
Ronda recently told reporters during a media conference call that her mom was unhappy with Rousey‘s plan to prolong the bout in order to punish Correia for, interestingly enough, comments Correia made about Rousey‘s family in an interview with Portuguese-language website Combate (h/t MMA Fighting). It seems De Mars would rather Rousey finish the fight as soon as possible. Said Rousey of her mom’s opinion, per Brent Brookhouse of MMA Junkie:
“She chewed me out. She wants me to end it as quick as possible still. I promised her that I’m going to be fine. I’m not going to take any damage. If it goes any longer, it’s just because I’m punishing her more.”
No matter how long it lasts, Rousey (11-0) is a massive favorite to successfully defend her title against Correia (9-0).
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 bantamweigh…
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, Rouseywasn‘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.
JordyMcElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.
It’s Ronda Rousey week on the Internet. That means everything she says and does is a possible talking point. And anything anyone famous says about her is potential fodder, too.
Last night, the UFC released Episode 2 of UFC 190 Embedded. The embed…
It’s Ronda Rousey week on the Internet. That means everything she says and does is a possible talking point. And anything anyone famous says about her is potential fodder, too.
Last night, the UFC released Episode 2 of UFC 190 Embedded. The embedded series is a fairly popular video blog series that the UFC puts out in the lead-up to a big fight card. It follows the fighters around as they gear up for Saturday night’s festivities.
Rousey always seems to have something fresh to throw into the fold.
This time, she drops a term of hers that she uses for the kind of woman her mom raised her to not be—she calls it a ‘do nothing b—h,’ or a ‘DNB.’ It is a label she has for the kinda “chick” (her words, not ours) who tries to be pretty and be taken care of by somebody else.
Whatever you think of Rousey and her moxie, she’s never been one to pull her punches. Some may even laud Rousey for setting a good example for other women to follow. She’ll certainly never be mistaken for a Stepford wife.
Rousey goes on to talk about her body being considered masculine by some. She finds the notion hilarious and says that just because her body was built for a purpose other than “f–king’ millionaires” doesn’t make it masculine. “I think it’s femininely bad ass as f–k,” she exclaims.
Rousey fights in Brazil this weekend at UFC 190 versus Brazil’s own Bethe Correia. From the looks of it, though, Rousey may have more support than any Brazilian competing on the card.
While undeniably a squash match, we argued that Rousey vs. Correia lies in the Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen territory of title fight mismatches — a fight between an ultra dominant champion and a brazen, yet almost completely outgunned challenger which has been (underwhelmingly) sold using the classic “grudge match” storyline. That was until yesterday, however, when new evidence surfaced and proved outright that, yes, this is in fact the biggest mismatch of all time.
Check out the video after the jump, then head over to OwnedSports.com for more videos on daily fantasy sports.
While undeniably a squash match, we argued that Rousey vs. Correia lies in the Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen territory of title fight mismatches — a fight between an ultra dominant champion and a brazen, yet almost completely outgunned challenger which has been (underwhelmingly) sold using the classic “grudge match” storyline. That was until yesterday, however, when new evidence surfaced and proved outright that, yes, this is in fact the biggest mismatch of all time.
Check out the video after the jump, then head over to OwnedSports.com for more videos on daily fantasy sports.
