Say what you like about MMA, those guys know how to get themselves noticed. When it comes to ramping up the hype, these fighters pack every bit as big a punch as they do in the cage. The Ronda Rousey – Bethe Correia UFC 190 championship bantamweight title showdown fight is still weeks away but already the pair are lighting up Twitter. In fact they’ve just about taken a blow torch to it. The talk has been bitterly personal, more than a little bit brutal and most definitely not in any way ladylike.
Now Rousey is always worth watching. A former Olympic judo bronze medallist (in 2008), star of Furious 7 and Entourage, friend of The Rock and currently undefeated UFC champion, she is widely reckoned to be THE best pound for pound female fighter there has ever been. And she looks good on it, too. It’s a pretty potent combination whichever way you look at it, even if she’s keen to play down the attention her looks attract.
For Brazilian challenger Coreia – affectionately known as ‘The Pitbull’ things are more straightforward. She’s battled her way through to a shot at the title with a 9-0 record in MMA and fighting style that’s based on kung fu and jiu-jitsu. She dishes out a strikes like a machine gun – quite a contrast to Rousey who, as you’d expect from a judo specialist, prefers to get to grips with her opponent as a means to take them down.
The pair have started the sparring early, with Twitter rather than the cage the setting for their early moves. And these ladies don’t always play nice. The credit for kicking things off goes to the challenger who has already proved herself to be every bit as energetic in promoting her fights as she is once the action gets going. In an interview with Brazilian magazine Combate, she didn’t hold anything back when she talked about knocking Rousey clean out and proving, as she put it, that ‘she is a lie’.
This is strong stuff from an outsider. Bookmakers Betfair, who take a keen interest in MMA, make Rousey 1/16 when this article was produced to win the fight and have Correia 1/10 to not even go the distance. But that little flurry was just the start. She then went on to slam Rousey’s past life, her character and her American lifestyle. Like we said, her punches came as a barrage.
Bethe Correia: I will make ‘farce’ Ronda Rousey ‘cry in pain’ at UFC 190 http://t.co/ssrZcqcjvK via @MMAFighting
— Bethe (@bethecorreia) June 1, 2015
As a backdrop to a no-holds barred fight, this is about as high octane as you could ask for. Whatever happens from here it looks like the showdown on August 1 is going to be personal. And Rousey is not a fighter who ordinarily needs any extra motivation.
Now a cynic might suggest that this whole episode is one big drive to sell the fight. That would be taking cynicism to a whole new level, but there is no denying that the fight is now one of the most keenly awaited contests of the summer. As they say, you do the math!
As for the contest itself, Rousey may be the hot favourite, but her film, modelling and writing commitments are bound to have been a distraction, no matter how hard she says she’s been training. All that rubbing up with the Rock on the red carpet is hardly the sort of preparation you’d expect from someone gearing up for what threatens to be one of the defining fights of their career. In contrast, Correia, who already boasts wins over Rousey teammates Shayna Baszler and Jessamyn Duke, has been focussed 100% on her preparations for the fight – at least when she’s not firing off cheap shots on Twitter that is. The fight will take place on August 1 at the HSBC Arena in Correia’s home town of Rio de Janeiro.
Corriea will get her @ss kicked by Rousey . The match won’t even prove to be close. I’d rather see a match-up between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano !
Al…
How much longer do you think Rousey can go destroying people?
I swear I just saw something where someone was buying/collecting the Honda that Rousey used to LIVE in. Something tells me she is neither living in another car right now or for that matter driving a Honda…though I will admit I have been driving Honda cars for 25 years and been quite content. I have never lived in one however. I also have never seen anyone who can keep up with her to-date so I suspect she’ll pummel this “contender” as well.
Burnsy…
On a related note, didn’t Stephen King buy some van that either hit him or that he used to own and wrecked because he was afraid of what his freak readers would do upon buying it?
I just thought of Kathy Bates in Misery and got a chill.
A Stephen King reference in a sports blog!!! My favorite author. Awesome SC. You are correct about the van that struck him. Only problem is that he’s a Red Sox fan – better than being a Yankees fan though. He’s wrote several baseball related books as well. Lightning hanging in there. Rooting for them now although I’m not a hockey guy per se.
Moose…
I pretty much read everything from Christine and Firestarter to Pet Sematary.
Many a high school year were spent reading King. I don’t think I read anything after It, though. The early stuff was certainly his heyday.
Was there anything modern of him that I missed?
And oh yeah, Go Lightning!
Need a lot of time but his Gunslinger series (7 books) is awesome
Seven books, huh, Moose?
And for us bartender/bloggers with commitment issues?
Perhaps another recommendation?
I don’t know if Stephen King really approves of what TV did to “Under The Dome” but I guess as long as the residual checks continue to clear the bank he won’t be in Misery over it. If he’s looking for a non-writing gig it looks like the Red Sox manager job might be available soon. Panic in Boston spreading…I mean…7 back with 100 games left! Now that’s a horror story for those folks…
Burnsy…
Now that’d be a solid publicity stunt. And I’m sure King would do it just for the pleasure of doing it.
Imagine that. He manages one game, they win.
He ends up with a 1.000 winning percentage then retires.
Now that’d make for a solid tale.