UFC 190 was a show built on the star power of one Ronda Rousey. She was the main attraction for fans in Brazil and watching around the world. However, the opening bout of the main card set the stage for what could be the coming out party for the next b…
UFC 190 was a show built on the star power of one Ronda Rousey. She was the main attraction for fans in Brazil and watching around the world. However, the opening bout of the main card set the stage for what could be the coming out party for the next big star in the women’s organization.
Claudia Gadelha earned what will be her second fight against current strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. If this contest is as interesting as their first, the UFC will be on the cusp of their second breakout women’s star.
For 15 minutes Gadelha dominated Jessica Aguilar as the former World Series of Fighting strawweight champion made her Octagon debut. Gadelha showed an improved striking and takedown game that earned her some interesting comments throughout major MMA media outlets.
The first time Jedrzejczyk and Gadelha fought, it was a highly controversial bout that the current champion was able to take via split decision. It was a back-and-forth battle in which Gadelha was able to have continued success with her takedowns while hanging tough with her striking through three rounds of action.
What is important about this fight is that the UFC can properly build it as an opportunity to develop a new star within the women’s division. Jedrzejczyk is grabbing attention for her displays of violence in the cage. Examples of the way she battered both Carla Esparza and Jessica Penne were two fights in which she was not in danger at any point but badly hurt her opponents. Gadelha is the only individual who has put the Polish fighter in danger.
“There’s no denying that her and Joanna are the baddest women at 115 pounds, and that fight will be very good to see again,” White said during the media conference.
The UFC should take this fight and place it on a card that will draw a lot of attention. Instead of putting them on a Fight Pass event as the main event, the promotion should slot them as a co-main event with an established champion before 2015 is over.
For example, Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold are set to face off in a battle for the middleweight title; however, the date has not been scheduled. MMA Frenzy’s Kelsey Mowatt reported that White tweeted a confirmation that the Weidman/Rockhold bout would come in December.
Weidman has been used as a main event the UFC’s year-end card in the past. Also, the UFC 168 co-main event featured Rousey and Miesha Tate, which was an exciting bout that evening. Perhaps the organization can use that co-main event as an attempt to promote another major women’s rivalry with the rematch between Gadelha and Jedrzejczyk.
Gadelha did her part in setting up the next major conflict in women’s mixed martial arts. The rematch between her and Jedrzejczyk is going to be well anticipated by hardcore fans and the mixed martial arts media base alike. With the proper promotion, the UFC can build both of these individuals into the next stars of MMA.
Ronda Rousey just torched another overmatched challenger in a matter of seconds. This time it was Bethe Correia, who found her face on UFC 190 posters opposite the undisputed ruler of female combat sports in the modern era.
When they met face-to-f…
Ronda Rousey just torched another overmatched challenger in a matter of seconds. This time it was Bethe Correia, who found her face on UFC 190 posters opposite the undisputed ruler of female combat sports in the modern era.
When they met face-to-face in real life, it was much more violent than a photoshopped pose and some modestly patriotic colors. It was a half-minute or so of frenetic swinging that ended with Correia planted facedown on the canvas.
And so it began again, the talk of a fight between Rousey and longtime 145-pound women’s stalwart Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino, the only viable competitive option in a world where no woman who fights as a bantamweight has any hope against the UFC champion.
Justino is a born killer, ferociously stacking bodies in her wake with blazing power shots and a ruthlessness that would be delightful to behold if it wasn’t so unfortunate for her opponents. Similar to Rousey, a Cyborg fight is more of an execution than an athletic contest, but Cyborg tends to end fights more seismically, landing shots that make you cringe for how savage they are in both intent and result.
For those interested in seeing Rousey take a step up in competition, Cyborg is the fight they want to see. Everyone knows Rousey is the best in the UFC because she’s proven it repeatedly, and the division she’s fighting in has consistently proven to be light-years behind her. But is she the best there is, period?
That’s a point of contention for anyone who has followed the trajectory of these two women as they’ve rocketed to the top of women’s MMA.
Justino has long stated that she can’t get to 135 pounds for a fight with Rousey due to medical concerns, but those concerns are undermined somewhat by the fact she was busted for steroid use in 2011. She’s offered the fight at featherweight, her natural class where she holds the Invicta FC title, and at 140 pounds, which would be a logical compromise for the two.
For her part, Rousey continues to insist on 135 pounds as the weight to engage and has lobbed wild insults and blunt accusations of continued steroid abuse, despite Justino’s otherwise clean record both before and after her 2011 test.
Backed up by her bosses at the UFC, who are either staunchly in support of her or uncomfortably lauding her at any given time, there is a growing sentiment that the fight is ready to go if Cyborg can drop the extra 10 pounds.
It’s a weird situation, because the biggest women’s fight—one of the biggest fights in general—MMA has ever seen is right there on the table, and everyone involved can get rich from it. But a few pounds and some ego is preventing it.
There’s also the degree of control that the UFC has over the narrative of the situation, which is enormous, considering they essentially run the sport itself at this point, coloring the perception of fans and media.
The promotion gets to use Justino as a stepping stone for Rousey without the two ever having to fight, subtly painting her as being disinterested or too scared to cut the extra few pounds for her chance at the UFC’s golden child.
Their influence is so broad that, while Justino may respond to a small media outlet in Brazil or to an MMA website that few people visit, it simply gets drowned out by the dozens of major outlets running stories along the lines of “Rousey Tells Steroid Cheat Cyborg It’s 135 or Nothing” to get their traffic up.
This, of course, occurs with total ignorance to the fact that Rousey has fought at 145 pounds multiple times and was the best female American judoka in Olympic history at an even higher weight class.
It ignores the fact that Justino walks around at 175 pounds of lean muscle and is an utterly hulking specimen, even when she hits the featherweight mark. It ignores that fact that both sides are openly agreeing to the fight, and some negotiation on weight would replace all this talk with action.
It’s one of the strangest fights to ever not quite happen for the UFC, and given the sheer volume of influence they have and the amount of banter among parties involved it’s harder than ever to know what’s true and what isn’t.
From the outside, in its simplest form, it appears that the two fighters have agreed to fight, and they’ve found a promoter willing to promote it. But the fight isn’t happening, and there’s a whole bunch of bluster being produced as to why that is.
Can Cyborg not get to bantamweight because she’s still using steroids?
Is Rousey so obsessed with leaving the sport undefeated that she’s afraid to put it on the line against the only woman who might be her equal?
Is Dana White afraid that his headline-grabbing golden goose would be less appealing to the masses with a loss on her record?
Is it some combination of these notions or others that’s keeping the fight from happening?
Nobody actually knows because only the fighters and the promotion are in a position to confirm anything, and it’s hard to distinguish truth from lies given the stakes.
How much is true and how much isn’t almost doesn’t matter, though. It’s time to get the fight done, because there are only so many more times people are going to pay $60 to watch a sneeze-and-you-miss-it main event between an Olympian and an accounting student that’s immediately followed by questions like, “When is the Cyborg fight going to happen?”
Make the fight happen. How you get there and who gets to spin the narrative on the way to it should be the least of everyone’s worries.
UFC 190 was headlined by a familiar sight: Ronda Rousey having the women’s bantamweight championship belt put around her after another beatdown that took less than a minute. This time, the opponent was Bethe Correia, but that’s ultimately inconsequenti…
UFC 190 was headlined by a familiar sight: Ronda Rousey having the women’s bantamweight championship belt put around her after another beatdown that took less than a minute. This time, the opponent was Bethe Correia, but that’s ultimately inconsequential.
The point is that fans were treated to another jaw-dropping display from the sport’s most dominant champion.
That wasn’t all, though. The Brazilian-heavy card featured a few important heavyweight matchups as well as a rematch 10 years in the making. Here’s a look at the complete results with a closer look at the biggest fights from Saturday night.
Vitor Miranda def. Clint Hester, TKO (Round 2, 2:38)
Guido Cannetti def. Hugo Viana, unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
UFC 190 Highlights
Stefan Struve Takes Decision over Big Nog
Coming into UFC 190, Stefan Struve hadn’t won a fight in the Octagon since a 2012 TKO victory over StipeMiocic. Much of that can be chalked up to a run of health issues for the 27-year-old. However, he also lost the only two fights he had in that span to Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem.
On Saturday, he took a big step toward getting back on the right track.
Struve wasn’t able to finish the fight, but his striking looked as polished as it’s been in the Octagon. According to FightMetric, the Dutch fighter opened up a 93-59 advantage in significant strikes while defending against 13 of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s 14 takedown attempts.
To make the result even more impressive, Struve wasn’t exactly 100 percent healthy. Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting reported that he had to fight through sickness on fight night:
Obviously, a win over Big Nog doesn’t mean what it used to. The loss was his third consecutive and fourth in his last five fights. At 39 years old, the best option for his long-term health might be dedicating himself to coaching and walking away from competing as a fighter.
However, the win is still enough to keep Struve relevant in the shallow heavyweight division. He entered the night ranked 15th in the heavyweight division but now has some upward mobility if he can prove he can remain healthy.
Shogun Rua Gets Back in the Win Column
Before Rousey got to do her thing in the main event, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua got back to his winning ways against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. The two ran back their instant classic from their Pride days in 2005, and the result was exactly the same, yet different.
It was the same in the truest sense. Shogun Rua had his hand raised via unanimous decision. However, this edition of the fight featured a much longer feeling-out process, more grappling from Rua and a lot more wondering about retirement.
With back-to-back losses for Lil’ Nog, it’s unclear how much more he has to offer in the Octagon.
However, there’s still a possibility that Shogun can parlay this victory into another run to relevance. He recently reunited with trainer Rafael Cordeiro. Analysts like Connor Ruebusch of Bloody Elbow attributed Rua‘s improvement to that move:
Cordeiro has had incredible success as a trainer recently. He elevated Fabricio Werdum and Rafael dos Anjos from consistent contenders to champions. Rua doesn’t appear to have enough to run all the way back to the title, but it’s possible that Cordeiro is extending his career in ways he couldn’t have done on his own.
Ronda Rousey Does It Yet Again
When “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey hangs up her gloves for good, she’s going to be remembered for the way she dispatched of the top fighters in her class with effortless ease. Her fight against Bethe Correia will definitely be mentioned as part of that legacy.
Rousey didn’t even have to administer her trademark armbar to get the early finish in this one. She brutalized the previously undefeated Correia and still ended her challenger’s night in just 34 seconds.
SportsCenter highlighted Rousey‘s ability to finish fights in brutally quick fashion:
At this point, it’s not really about the opponent. Correia was just the next name who hadn’t yet lost to Rousey. It’s simply about how dominant one champion can be.
A superfight against Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino is about the only matchup where the opponent could genuinely create interest. According to MMA Fighting, UFC President Dana White said it’s a matchup that depends on Cyborg proving she can make the weight:
If that ever happens, Rousey will finally get to show what she can do against someone who may possess similar strength and athleticism.
Until then, fans can continue to tune in to see what absolute dominance looks like.
A lot of things could’ve been better about UFC 190.
Ronda Rousey’s performance was not one of them.
Rousey did almost exactly what she promised to do on Saturday, steamrolling overmatched challenger Bethe Correia with a wild flurry of punch…
A lot of things could’ve been better about UFC 190.
Ronda Rousey’s performance was not one of them.
Rousey did almost exactly what she promised to do on Saturday, steamrolling overmatched challenger Bethe Correia with a wild flurry of punches before knocking her flat just 34 seconds into the first round.
It was the sixth straight defense of Rousey’s UFC women bantamweight title, boosted her undefeated record to 12-0 and stood as an emphatic statement that the rest of her competition—already so far behind—is just never going to catch her.
Rousey’s last three appearances in the Octagon have now ended in less than a minute—in 16, 14 and 34 seconds, respectively.
Immediately afterward, she said everything had gone according to plan. As if we needed that confirmation.
“It kind of went how I expected,” she told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan inside the cage. “I planned to instead of trying to force a clinch, overwhelm her [with] striking first so that she would want to clinch first, and that’s exactly what happened.”
The outcome was far from a surprise, but the method was startling.
According to Fightnomics author Reed Kuhn, Rousey came into the fight as a favorite of historic proportions. She was expected to defeat Correia with ease and did. She vowed to make it a painful experience for the Brazilian challenger, who had gotten under her skin with trash talk, and she did that, too.
Few people, however, expected Rousey to overwhelm Correia in a pure striking match. The champion’s Olympic-level judo skills constitute such a powerful and unique tool in her shallow weight class that it often seems like she can end a fight at will.
If this bout was going to finish in under a minute, most anticipated a quick Rouseytakedown, a scramble and yet another of her signature armbar submissions.
But after Correia evaded a pair of early takedown attempts, Rousey merely blitzed her with punches.
With just 22 seconds gone, the diminutive challenger lost her footing and tumbled backward against the chain link. As she regained her feet, Rousey tagged her with a series of strikes, including the winging overhand right to the temple that put Correia down on her face and prompted referee John McCarthy to stop the fight.
The immediate reaction was astonishment. We’re used to seeing Rousey do great things, but this was really something special. If the preternatural grappler is suddenly going to start knocking people out on the feet, that’s very bad news for women’s 135-pound fighters everywhere.
Not that news could get much worse for them, anyway.
The only place Rousey fell short in this bout was in her strange pre-fight prediction that she would take her time making Correia pay for her trash talk.
In May, Correia caused a brief stir by telling Portuguese-language website Combate (h/t MMA Fighting) she hoped Rouseydidn’t “commit suicide” after losing to her. Media called it out of bounds because Rousey’s father took his own life when she was a child.
Correia later apologized, but Rousey is not one to forgive or forget. She said she was going to pay the fiery underdog back with a slow, painful demise. In the end, though, she couldn’t seal the deal on that particular guarantee. She was just too good to stretch this out.
“I hope that nobody really brings up my family anymore when it comes to fights,” she told Rogan. “I hope this is the last time.”
Perhaps Rousey also instinctively knew this night did not need another long, drawn-out affair.
The UFC 190 pay-per-view card boasted seven fights and a four-hour time slot. Visa issues knocked a pair of finale fights from the fight company’s Ultimate Fighter: Brazil reality show from an event in Florida last month and forced them to be shuffled onto this PPV.
By the time Rousey and Correia took the cage, it was creeping up on 2 a.m. ET.
The UFC often comes under fire for the slow pacing of its live events. On this night, it was especially bad. Viewers had already suffered through a pair of middling heavyweight bouts, introductory video packages for each TUF: Brazil contestant and a special message from rapper Ice Cube about how everyone ought to go see the new NWA biopic.
The supersized nature of the event seemed particularly weird, considering it was sold almost exclusively as “The Ronda Rousey Show.”
Despite the fact that this shaped up as the least competitive fight of her career, she netted mainstream coverage from outlets like the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Esquire and Time Magazine, among others.
Just before the event began, UFC President Dana White and Rogan engaged in a long televised sales pitch about Rousey’s importance, dominance and status as a role model to “little girls” everywhere. Then the fight company put on an excruciating event that stretched into the wee hours, surely long after those little girls had to be in bed.
Not even a fairly entertaining scrap between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the co-main event could drag spectators out of the doldrums.
Reviews were starting to pour in, and many were negative:
Yet when Rousey’s traditional Joan Jett walkout music hit, when we saw her terrifying pre-fight game face and watched her stalk through the wild Brazilian crowd to the cage, the funk of the previous few hours lifted.
It was time to watch Rousey do her thing.
Then she did it, and it was glorious.
As the Washington Post‘s Cindy Borem wrote the morning after, Rousey‘s exploits are placing her in rarified, mainstream company:
No matter the next opponent and outcome, beating up “the next chick” has put Rousey, like Serena Williams in tennis, in a category all by herself … the two are doing extraordinary things, things that put them at the heart of the conversation whenever “greatest of all time” comes up.
Indeed, Rousey‘s performance here was better than we could have hoped for, considering the lopsided pre-fight odds. It was also exactly the sort of performance needed to resurrect a PPV event that otherwise had been fairly insufferable.
There are still many valid questions to sort out about Rousey and her place in the history of our sport. There is her relative lack of competition to consider and her unwillingness (thus far) to fight the one woman in the world who might actually give her a run for her money—Invicta FC featherweight titleholder Cris “Cyborg” Justino.
There is also the UFC champ’s lack of striking defense, which was well on display even in this short and sweet victory.
As it does with nearly everything, the UFC often goes overboard trying to sell Rousey to the public. This fight against Correiawasn’t, as Rogan suggested multiple times, “a historical event.” It was a mismatch, plain and simple. It was matchmakers scraping the bottom of the barrel to find Rousey an opponent she hadn’t already blown past.
Her next fight, on the books before this fight even happened, will be more of the same. Rousey is scheduled for a third meeting with archnemesisMiesha Tate, a scrappy but overmatched contender she’s already defeated twice.
We will watch that as we wait to see if a fight against Justino ever comes together, or if a contender like Holly Holm might build herself into a challenger who can fare better than Correia.
The problem moving forward for the UFC, as it has been for some time, is to continue to entice consumers into dropping $60 on Rousey‘s particular brand of drubbings. That task becomes even more difficult when you lead into her live appearances with three-and-a-half hours of fluff.
Yet Rousey somehow made this event and matchup seem worthwhile. Not every UFC champion could’ve done that.
Perhaps the greatest example of her unique star power wasn’t that she trounced Correia in unexpected style, but that she elevated an entire lackluster night with just 34 seconds of work.
The latest chapter in the Ronda Rousey story took just 34 seconds, a furious blitz ending in a right hand to the temple that turned poor Bethe Correia’s lights out. For pay-per-view buyers, that’s $1.76 per glorious second for the pleasure of watching …
The latest chapter in the Ronda Rousey story took just 34 seconds, a furious blitz ending in a right hand to the temple that turned poor Bethe Correia’s lights out. For pay-per-view buyers, that’s $1.76 per glorious second for the pleasure of watching Rousey dispose of yet another overmatched foe in high definition.
While 34 seconds may seem like a blink of an eye in a bout scheduled to go 25 minutes, in Rousey’s world, it was a relative eternity. After all, her last two fights lasted a mere 30 seconds—combined.
“She’s the most badass woman anyone has ever seen,” UFC President Dana White told Fox’s Ariel Helwani. White is known to speak a language all his own, one made up entirely of hyperbole, invective and swears. But here at least, he seems prescient.
Beating Ronda Rousey is no easy task. She dispatched the Olympic wrestler Sara McMann in just over a minute. Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Alexis Davis didn’t even manage that much success—she got knocked out in just 16 seconds. Slugger Sarah Kaufman did a bit better than that, lasting almost an entire minute before tapping out to an armbar.
That’s essentially every MMA archetype, the best example of each in the women’s bantamweight division, disposed of like they were little more than children. Scariest of all, at least for prospective foes, is the indisputable fact Rousey is only getting better.
“She’s going to continue to be a problem for everyone because it’ll be a pick-your-poison scenario,” UFC on Fox commentator Kenny Florian said after the fight. “If you respect the hands, you get thrown down. If you don’t, you’ll get punched. This is years and years of competing at an elite level. She’s looking to finish her opponent the second the bell rings.
…
“Ronda just finds a new way to win each time. This fight will add more value to her training in the future. She’ll pick out mistakes and get better with her striking and get even more dangerous. She knows she can submit you, and now she can use her striking and develop that more, and get even better. There’s no one in the division who can offer competition.”
What Rousey does, she does very well. She’s a next-level athlete, strong and fast and hyper aggressive. Her game is built around the clinch, an area of expertise she spent years perfecting en route to two Olympic Games representing the United States in Judo. When she puts hands on you, it’s all over.
Even when Rousey is intent on using her hands, as she was here against a light-punching opponent who was practically tailor-made for trying out new techniques, her clinch still informs everything. The flurry that finished Correia, after all, came immediately after the challenger was tossed ignominiously on her rump.
But as former Bleacher Report analyst Jack Slack explained in a great piece on Fightland, that result is not an inevitability:
There was nothing to stop any of Rousey’s opponents from circling away from her. Rousey didn’t methodically work them toward the fence, cutting off the cage and taking away space each time, all while staying down behind her guard. No, Rousey rushed them on a straight line. Boxing 101: step off line and circle away from the edge of the ring.
And if you do get close to the corner, you fake to go one way and you change directions. Really basic, but game changing stuff.
Correia fought like she had read Slack’s breakdown—and was determined to do everything exactly wrong. She stood right in front of Rousey as she charged, refusing to move offline and doing what every startled deer does when the lioness attacks. She stood her ground and threw her right hand.
That, of course, is exactly what Rousey wants. She knows she’s going to get hit charging in. She accepts it as a cost of doing business. If you plant your feet to unleash a haymaker, Rousey has won already.
Beating Rousey won’t be a matter of brute strength and aggression. She has the market cornered on those attributes. It won’t come by improving your clinch game and working hard on your bottom game. That merely delays things. She’s spent a lifetime mastering those elements—a three-month training camp won’t be enough.
Taking her bantamweight title will come down to discipline, distance and bravado. Killing the queen won’t be the result of mindless brawling. It will happen when a fighter stares down the charging bull and simply, elegantly, steps gently to the side and watches her pass by.
Right now, it seems like Rousey is head and shoulders above all competition. But there is a fighter lurking who might just have the particular skill set required to do the impossible. While Miesha Tate steps into the cage for a third time against the champion, a dark horse bides her time.
Holly Holm awaits.
Hardcore fans have been tracking Holm’s development carefully since her MMA debut in 2011. Twice Ring Magazine‘s Female Boxer of the Year, Holm was a constant presence on the New Mexico fight scene, drawing thousands of fans to a variety of tiny casinos along Route 66 to watch her work. In 2013, she officially put boxing in her rear-view mirror to concentrate on MMA full time.
Holm, despite making her UFC debut a little more than five months ago, has clearly spent a lot of time thinking about a potential Rousey fight.
“Ronda has been incredible and she’s run through everyone without it being too much of a competition,” Holm told Yahoo’s Kevin Iole. “She can clinch and toss you to the ground and then arm bar you in two seconds. But if you don’t get close enough, you can’t hit her. You have to be able to put together a game plan to get past that.”
Ironically, it’s the very traits that would serve her well in a Rousey fight that have caused many to label Holm a disappointment in her initial UFC forays. Holm’s ability to control the distance with her footwork and strong kicking game is often mislabeled. The style many people call “too cautious” or “lacking killer instinct” is the very formula needed to throw Rousey off her game.
This patience, science and discipline, things some fans consider to be “boring,” composes a strategy that seems almost perfectly designed to lure a charging Rousey into trouble. Rousey’s complete lack of nuance and propensity to throw her punches like a drunken sailor on a one-day pass could create opportunities for Holly to angle off her front leg and launch quick counters, racking up points and possibly putting Ronda into a defensive frame of mind.
For all her success in the cage, we’ve never once seen Rousey deal with a fighter engaging from distance. No one has forced her to, instead accepting Rousey’s rules and all but inviting themselves into her clinch.
Holm’s coach, Greg Jackson, is one of the most tactical thinkers in MMA. He would have her steeled to fight that instinct. Holm, despite her boxing pedigree, does her best work from further out. Her legs are long and fast enough to fire off front and side kicks to the ribs to slow down the champ’s forward momentum or to feint and capitalize on her opponent’s response.
The keys for Holm, and ultimately for every striker looking to challenge Rousey, will be her ability to avoid the clinch and to survive when she is put on her back, something that seems likely to happen several times over the course of a 25-minute title fight.
Holm has been surprisingly adept in this area, using strong counter wrestling to escape danger. She’s big and very strong. In the fight game, all too often, that’s enough to get the job done.
When she’s threatened she doesn’t just defend the takedown—she angles out to remove herself from the situation as soon as possible. Her ground game remains a bit of a mystery. When she does hit the mat, Holm’s strategy is focused on getting up rather than playing jiu-jitsu on the ground.
That we don’t know much about her matwork, despite it being the obvious route to victory against her, is a huge compliment to both Holm and her coaches. A smart fighter minimizes their weaknesses. It’s that kind of fight IQ that would give Holm a fighting chance against Rousey.
There’s no question, should the two fight, that Holm would go into the fight as a significant underdog. And rightfully so. Rousey’s reputation is well deserved and she’s proved her mettle under fire. But Holm, at the very least, would have a blueprint in place for success. She’d have a chance, if only a slim one.
Against Ronda Rousey, that’s the highest of compliments.
Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.
Saturday night marked the UFC’s return to Brazil with UFC 190. On the back of a women’s bantamweight fight, it was a solid card that featured a lot of action and some heavy implications for the future.
In the main event, Ronda Rousey made quick work of…
Saturday night marked the UFC’s return to Brazil with UFC 190. On the back of a women’s bantamweight fight, it was a solid card that featured a lot of action and some heavy implications for the future.
In the main event, Ronda Rousey made quick work of Bethe Correia, knocking the Brazilian out in under a minute. It was a grudge match made personal by Correia and sealed with some precise shots from the champion.
Also on the card were names like Minotauro Nogueira, Mauricio Rua, Antonio Silva and Claudia Gadelha. Each put in an effort to make their own moments on the fight card in hopes of moving closer to the coveted title picture.
With that, let’s take a look at the fighters who competed on the card and make some suggestions for their next matchups.
UFC 190 was a show built on the star power of one Ronda Rousey. She was the main attraction for fans in Brazil and watching around the world. However, the opening bout of the main card set the stage for what could be the coming out party for the next big star in the women’s organization.