UFC 190 is scheduled for Saturday, August 1. The action will take place at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Headlining the card is a bantamweight title contest between undefeated champion Ronda Rousey and undefeated challenger Bethe Correia. C…
UFC 190 is scheduled for Saturday, August 1. The action will take place at the HSBC Arena in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil.
Headlining the card is a bantamweight title contest between undefeated champion Ronda Rousey and undefeated challenger Bethe Correia. Correia earned the title shot by winning each of her three UFC bouts to date. For Rousey, this bout is an opportunity to defend her UFC title for a fifth time.
In the co-main event of the evening, Brazilian fighting icons Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will square off. Both men are coming off quick knockout losses and are looking to get back into the win column.
The full UFC 190 fight card is as follows:
UFC 190 Main Card (10 p.m. ET)
Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia
MauricioRua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
GlaicoFranca vs. Fernando Bruno
ReginaldoVieira vs. Dileno Lopes
Stefan Struve vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Antonio Silva vs. SoaPalelei
Claudia Gadelha vs. Jessica Aguilar
Prelims on Fox Sports 1 (8 p.m. ET)
Demian Maia vs. Neil Magny
Rafael Cavalcante vs. Patrick Cummins
WarlleyAlves vs. NordineTaleb
IuriAlcantara vs. Leandro Issa
Prelims on UFC Fight Pass (7 p.m. ET)
Vitor Miranda vs. Clint Hester
Hugo Viana vs. Guido Cannetti
Join us here once the action begins for Bleacher Report’s live play-by-play coverage of the full fight card.
The UFC’s red-hot summer continues Saturday night with Ronda Rousey defending the women’s bantamweight championship against undefeated challenger Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro.
All eyes will be on Rousey, who has become one of the wo…
The UFC’s red-hot summer continues Saturday night with Ronda Rousey defending the women’s bantamweight championship against undefeated challenger Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro.
All eyes will be on Rousey, who has become one of the world’s biggest sports stars and has needed a grand total of 96 seconds to win each of her last three fights. She has been taken past the first round only one time in 11 career fights, finishing all of her opponents with nine submissions and two knockouts.
Correia doesn’t boast that kind of resume, but she has won all nine fights in her career, three in the UFC, and earned this title shot after defeating Shayna Baszler—one of MMA‘s four horsewomen, which include Rousey—by technical knockout at UFC 177.
No one will be expecting Correia to win, though she always has a shot because punchers have the ability to score a knockout in a hurry. There’s no secret to what Rousey will try to do, but no one has been able to stop it thus far.
What They Are Saying
Rousey has reached rarefied air in mixed martial arts, similar to where Anderson Silva was from 2006 to 2012. She’s become a fascinating novelty act with the talent to back it up, which is a difficult pairing that few athletes can claim.
The UFC has lost a lot of its top stars for one reason or another in the last two years. Silva is suspended for failing two drug tests. Georges St-Pierre hasn’t fought since November 2013 and has given no indication that he will ever return. Jon Jones is indefinitely suspended while he works through various problems outside the Octagon.
Developing new marquee superstars is now more important to the UFC than ever. Rousey and Conor McGregor look like the new torchbearers for the sport, which is why a loss for Rousey in this spot would hurt the company.
Yet Rousey is so versatile that losing wouldn’t ruin her career or drawing power, as Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports noted:
She’s a dominant athlete. She’s a terrific interview. She’s witty and wise-cracking, trash-talking and insightful. She’s attractive. And much like Oscar De La Hoya did when he rose to pay-per-view stardom in the mid-to-late 1990s, she brings a different audience from the standard fight crowd.
Rousey has a great following among women, and they buy her fights in larger numbers than they do for others.
As logical and true as that is, there’s a mystique following Rousey around right now because of how she is winning and that magical zero in the loss column. That does mean something in a combat sport, as Rocky Marciano and Floyd Mayweather Jr. can attest.
Rousey’s willingness to provide a quote, such as the one she provided to Damon Martin of Fox Sports about needing the rest of the division to come up to her level, does make her a dream athlete:
I need these other girls. It’s not like I could do this by myself. I need a dancing partner. The analogy I use a lot is these girls are like plants — sometimes you can grow a crop and harvest it year after year like Miesha and sometimes you harvest it once and it will never grow back, like I don’t think Bethe will ever come back after this.
With Rousey looking for challengers, it’s telling that this far into the preview, not a lot has been said about her opponent.
Correia isn’t the opponent anyone would have handpicked for a title shot, but as Jeff Wagenheim of Sports Illustrated noted, she figured out how to play the game after defeating Baszler:
The show apparently earned a thumbs-up from UFC reviewers/matchmakers because the Brazilian was given a shot on her weight division’s most brightly lit stage without a single top-10 victory. A rationale for this: Rousey already has beaten six of the nine women behind her in the SI.com bantamweight rankings, two others just lost fights, and the one remaining is Correia.
No one is giving Correia a chance to win this fight. She’s a 12-1 underdog, per Odds Shark, and doesn’t have a victory over an opponent currently ranked among UFC.com‘s top 15 women’s bantamweight fighters.
The combination of Correia’s anonymity and her opponent’s quick-finish ability will make a victory possible for the challenger only if she can force this fight into the final minute of the first round.
Correia does have stats to suggest she can give Rousey a challenge, based on how the champion prefers to fight.
Again, even trying to make a case for Correia, she has never gone against a fighter in the same realm as Rousey. Her three UFC opponents have a combined career record of 34-26, including 1-7 in the UFC.
It’s impossible to draw a parallel between Correia’s ascent and Rousey’s before she became a superstar because Correia isn’t destroying opponents. Rousey dominated four Strikeforce opponents in the first round before defeating Miesha Tate to win the bantamweight title in March 2012.
Main Event Prediction
There are a lot of arguments about the biggest upset in UFC history as of this moment. Matt Serra knocking out St-Pierre in 2007 is up there. Renan Barao’s loss to TJ Dillashaw in May 2014 is the most recent fight that can make a case for falling into that category.
Yet any argument would stop and start with Correia defeating Rousey if it were to happen at UFC 190. The champion is operating at a different level than anyone else in the women’s division right now. If it takes you longer to walk to the cage than it does to win your last three fights, things are going well.
Correia’s best chance to win this fight is catching Rousey with a hard punch that fazes her early, and she’s able to keep bringing the heat with her fists and avoid going to the ground. No one has been able to do it thus far, though, so don’t expect anything different now.
The good news is that the fight will take longer than 15 seconds, though not by much.
Prediction: Rousey wins via first-round submission.
Tuning in for a Ronda Rousey fight is unlike tuning in for most UFC main events. When paying for a main event, fans usually expect a competitive fight. Generally, the biggest fights are powered by the unknown—the intrigue of finding out just…
Tuning in for a Ronda Rousey fight is unlike tuning in for most UFC main events.
When paying for a main event, fans usually expect a competitive fight. Generally, the biggest fights are powered by the unknown—the intrigue of finding out just who is the better of two equally matched elite fighters.
But that isn’t what fans will be paying for at UFC 190. They will tune in to witness dominance. They will tune in to see the champion whose last three title defenses took a combined one minute and 36 seconds. They will tune in to see just how quickly she can do in her next challenger.
In this case, they’ll want to see just how much damage Rousey can inflict on Bethe Correia. Here’s a look at how the two stack up and the latest odds from Odds Shark.
Predictions
As the long odds might indicate, it’s tough to find anyone who’s backing Correia in this fight. It’s difficult to find people who are even rooting for her.
The UFC encouraged its more than 2.5 million followers to retweet an image to show their support for Correia. Only 190 have done so at the time of writing:
Still, Correia doesn’t see that as reason to doubt herself. She is known for pushing the action in her fights and aggressively closing the distance. It’s a strategy she intends to employ against Rousey.
“I’m not worried…I don’t have to respect anything she’s going to do in there because I’m going to be imposing my game and overcome anything that she can do in there,” Correia said, per Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t have to think about anything she’s doing.”
That’s all well and good as pre-fight trash talk, but the few fans backing Correia in this fight should hope that’s just pre-fight banter. Coming right at Rousey and hoping to impose her will is the strategy that Cat Zingano tried to bring to her title shot.
It didn’t work out well.
Rousey promptly ended the fight via armbar in 14 seconds.
Although it’s unrealistic to expect her to do that every time out, if an opponent is willing to barrel into Rousey’s clinch game, a quick finish is always on the table. In fact, it’s expected. A look at the staff predictions from MMAJunkie, Bloody Elbow and Bleacher Report reveals that not a single soul is taking Correia to pull off the massive upset.
Sean Smith of Bleacher Report summed up the reason for such an overwhelming majority:
Until she meets Cristiane Justino, I probably won’t even consider picking against Rousey. She’s a class, maybe three, above everybody else in the UFC women’s bantamweight division right now. Correia has done a good job selling this bout, but she isn’t beating the champion, who will probably look to punish the Brazilian by showing off her improved striking.
Rousey, TKO, Rd. 1
This isn’t Rousey’s biggest test to date, but it will serve as a nice legacy-builder for her. Whether by TKO or submission, this thing isn’t going to see a second round.
The UFC returns to the birth spot of modern MMA this weekend, when it presents UFC 190 live from Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. Women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will defend against Brazil’s own Bethe Correia, and the legendary Nogueira twins wil…
The UFC returns to the birth spot of modern MMA this weekend, when it presents UFC 190 live from Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. Women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will defend against Brazil’s own Bethe Correia, and the legendary Nogueira twins will once more fight before their countrymen at the age of 39.
The main event is perhaps the biggest mismatch in the history of title fights in combat sports. Correia is a game and gutsy athlete who has maintained an impressively energetic punch rate over the course of her nine-fight career.
But Rousey is a straight-up assassin. She was an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, while Correia started training in martial arts as a post-college hobby. Even if they were athletic equals, Rousey has spent her entire life training to throw opponents, snap their arms or choke them out.
And they are not even athletic equals. To reach the elite levels of international women’s judo requires a level of athleticism that isn’t required for women’s MMA.
Kenny Florian stated a widely held opinion Friday when he told Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com that Correia beating Rousey would be “the biggest upset in UFC history.”
There’s been speculation for months that Rousey is going to punish Correia out of personal animosity and delay the fight. Once the competition starts, though, the honed athlete in Rousey will likely follow the quickest and surest path to victory and submit Correia in fast, dominant fashion.
The remainder of the main card offers a more competitive selection of fights.
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Between five and 10 years ago, this fight would have been something special as a matchup. At that time, Mauricio Rua would have been the clear pick, but the slowing hands of time make this one more competitive than it might have been in an earlier era.
On the other hand, MMA Mania’s Jesse Holland picked Antonio Rogerio Nogueira to grind out the unanimous decision.
Glaico Franca vs. Fernando Bruno
This is a battle of outstanding Brazilian lightweights and should feature high-level grappling from both men. Fernando Bruno is nearly a decade older, and Glaico Franca is the more explosive athlete.
The Bleacher Report staff split closely on this fight, going 3-2 in favor of Bruno. Holland went with Franca to win via TKO, and Cepeda also went with Franca.
Reginaldo Vieira vs. Dileno Lopes
This bantamweight bout features one fighter who was given a second chance in the Brazilian version of The Ultimate Fighter house, as Reginaldo Vieira was allowed back into the tournament after Giovanni Santos withdrew.
This is the other fight on the card, besides the main event, where there is a wide consensus. Holland has Dileno Lopes by unanimous decision. The Bleacher Report staff was unanimous in picking Lopes, and Cepeda chose him as well.
Stefan Struve vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
In his prime, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira would have been the clear favorite to win this fight. He had the boxing skill to get inside of the 6’10” Stefan Struve and light him up from inside the pocket. One of the sport’s great grapplers, he could have put Struve on the ground and made him tap.
But Struve is a dangerous striker, and at 39, Nogueira is a badly faded version of himself and has already absorbed too much punishment in his career. The Bleacher Report staff went 4-1 in favor of Struve. Cepeda and Holland both picked Struve as well.
Antonio Silva vs. Soa Palelei
Antonio “Big Foot” Silva is a longtime fixture at the elite level of MMA heavyweights, but he’s on the downside of his career. He’s 2-5-1 in his last eight fights.
But keep in mind that he compiled that record against a murderer’s row. Soa Palelei is a big, hulking heavyweight, but he hasn’t faced anything like the competition Silva has.
The Bleacher Report staff was split in picking Palelei 3-2, but it was unanimous in seeing the fight decided inside of the first two rounds. Holland picked Palelei by knockout, and Cepeda predicted Silva to prevail via decision.
Claudia Gadelha vs. Jessica Aguilar
This should prove to be an important contender’s fight in the women’s 115-pound division as Jessica Aguilar makes her highly anticipated UFC debut. There is a lot of potential for excitement here.
Holland predicted that Claudia Gadelha will provide a rude reception for Aguilar, winning a unanimous decision. Four of five picked the same way for Bleacher Report, with just Scott Harris going out on a limb for the newcomer.
Cepeda made it a near-sweep, going for Gadelha as well.
Ronda Rousey takes center stage at UFC 190 Saturday night as she puts her UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship on the line against Bethe Correia. As always, the question is whether the challenger can at least force the dominant champion to break …
Ronda Rousey takes center stage at UFC 190 Saturday night as she puts her UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship on the line against Bethe Correia. As always, the question is whether the challenger can at least force the dominant champion to break a sweat.
Other notable fights on the card include Mauricio Rua battling Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, whose twin brother, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, will take on Stefan Struve, and there’s also a couple final bouts from The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 4.
Let’s examine the odds for all of the matches on the main card and make predictions for each. That’s followed by a preview of the hyped main event.
Odds and Predictions for Main Card
Rousey vs. Correia Preview
Rousey‘s last two fights have lasted a combined 30 seconds, and only once in 11 bouts has she been pushed beyond the first round. Every opponent comes in with a plan they believe can end her extraordinary run of success, and she destroys it in the blink of an eye.
The question is how long overwhelming opponents with such ease will remain entertaining. She’s become one of the biggest draws in the sport since arriving to UFC. Eventually, fans will probably want to see somebody give her a serious test, though.
Correia is also undefeated in her MMA career at 9-0. That includes a 3-0 mark since joining UFC, with her latest victory coming over Shayna Baszler last August.
This marks a massive increase in the level competition, however. Nobody she’s faced in her career can match the power and ground game of Rousey, who’s in a class by herself.
The Brazilian underdog isn’t backing down from the challenge. She explained her plan of attack to Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie through an interpreter .
“I believe in myself,” Correia said. “I’m going to go in there and beat her. I think I can overcome all her strong points. Her weaknesses? I’m not even worried about that. I know what I need to do in there. She doesn’t trade punches. In 11 fights, she’s never really shown her boxing, so I’m going to go in there and box with her.”
It’s clearly the right approach. Correia is at her best when she’s able to stand up and fight, which has allowed her to outscore opponents with seven of her wins coming by decision. And if it moves to the ground, it’s typically only a matter of time before Rousey locks in the armbar.
Of course, being able to execute a game plan like that is much easier said than done. It usually only takes Rousey a matter of seconds to take control of a fight, so expecting to keep her at bay for multiple rounds is an uphill battle to say the least.
The champion has her upcoming schedule laid out, and it certainly doesn’t include a loss on Saturday night, as noted by Damon Martin of FoxSports.com.
“Here’s pretty much the plan,” Rousey said. “I’m going to beat up Bethe, then I’m going to take a couple of weeks to rest, and then I’m going to go beat up Miesha [Tate], and then I’m going to go to like Thailand or wherever we decide to film (“Mile 22″) and prep for like a month, and then start filming for like eight to 10 weeks, and then go beat up the next chick.”
Ultimately, Correia possesses the type of fighting style that could give Rousey problems—in theory. The issue, as highlighted by Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com, is that the talent gap is likely too large to overcome:
All of this equates to somewhat of an unfair fight Saturday. Really, looking back, none of Rousey‘s fights have looked fair, but that hasn’t mattered. Her last appearance at UFC 184 in Los Angeles produced an announced gate of $2.675 million and reportedly drew the largest pay-per-view number of her career in an event she has headlined.
Correia does get to fight in front of what should be a supportive crowd in Rio deJaneiro, and the fact expectations are so low from the outside takes much of the pressure away. But it’s still hard to imagine a scenario where she pulls off the shocking upset.
Expect a longer fight than the last few Rousey has won, but she should still emerge victorious inside the first round. The wait for a fight where she’s pushed to the limit will continue.
Trying to find keys to victory for Bethe Correia against Ronda Rousey is like trying to find a way for me to beat Usain Bolt in a foot race. So much would have to happen to Bolt that it’s barely worth even pondering.
For kicks, let’s talk about what Co…
Trying to find keys to victory for Bethe Correia against Ronda Rousey is like trying to find a way for me to beat Usain Bolt in a foot race. So much would have to happen to Bolt that it’s barely worth even pondering.
For kicks, let’s talk about what Correia has to do to pull off a miracle in her home country of Brazil in the main event of UFC 190.
Correia‘s Keys to Victory
Be Smart with Her Strikes
Correia‘s striking is the best aspect of her game. She lands 55 percent of her strikes. If Rousey has a weakness, it’s her striking defense. She only evades or blocks 53 percent of the strikes her opponents throw.
UFC light heavyweight champion and Fox Sports analyst Daniel Cormier obviously knows a thing or two about the sport, but it’s hard not to disagree more with his keys to victory for Correia. Per Fox Sports, Cormier says:
“She [Correia] needs to try to overwhelm Rousey with her striking and power. She needs to control the range of the fight.”
The worst thing Correia can do is attack with reckless abandon. We saw what that got Alexis Davis and Cat Zingano. Rousey used their aggression against them, and neither fighter lasted 20 seconds.
Correia has to be smart and judicious with her attack. Prolonging the fight would at least give us a chance to see if Rousey is as devastating late in a fight as she is early on.
Avoid the Takedown Like the Plague
Correia‘s takedown defense has been excellent in her career at 80 percent, but she’s never faced Rousey. Avoiding the rest of the women’s bantamweights’ attempts at takedowns and Rousey‘s powerful and skillful throws are two different things.
If the fight goes to the ground, Rousey will win end it whenever she wants to put Correia out of her misery.
Rousey‘s Key to Victory
Don’t Allow Emotion to Get the Best of Her
Rousey seems determined to make a statement against Correia, but she must guard against allowing this fight to get too emotional. You can watch the path both women have taken en route to Saturday’s clash in the video below.
She’s simply better in every way. Perhaps the only way this bout becomes competitive is if Rousey leaves herself open to take a shot she wouldn’t normally take because she’s trying to put on a show.
Even then, she’s likely tough and resilient enough to recover, but there’s no reason to put herself in harm’s way. As long as she comes to the Octagon to take care of business, Correia won’t make it past the two-minute mark in the first round.
The UFC’s red-hot summer continues Saturday night with Ronda Rousey defending the women’s bantamweight championship against undefeated challenger Bethe Correia at 