UFC 190: Rousey vs Correia

[wandshogun09]

We're off to Rio for the next PPV.

 

 

PPV MAIN CARD

Ronda Rousey vs Bethe Correia - Bantamweight Title

Shogun Rua vs Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Fernando Bruno vs Glaico Franca - TUF Lightweight Final

Dileno Lopes vs Reginaldo Vieira - TUF Bantamweight Final

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Stefan Struve

Bigfoot Silva vs Soa Palelei

Claudia Gadelha vs Jessica Aguilar

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS

Demian Maia vs Neil Magny

Feijao Cavalcante vs Patrick Cummins

Warlley Alves vs Nordine Taleb

Iuri Alcantara vs Leandro Issa

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS

Clint Hester vs Vitor Miranda

Hugo Viana vs Guido Cannetti

 

A seven fight main card!

 

 

Rousey vs Correia has been brewing for a while. It started innocently enough. Bethe Correia was booked against Jessamyn Duke for April 2014's UFC 172 event. Duke of course, is a member of the Four Horsewomen. A group of four female MMA fighters who happen to be close friends - Jessamyn Duke, Marina Shafir, Shayna Baszler and the leader Ronda Rousey. Anyway, Correia came in as a relative unknown - although an undefeated one - and beat Duke by decision. No big deal, right? Then it started...

 

 

"I know that they are close friends. They live and train together, and they call themselves the 'Four Horsewomen'. It's like 'one for all and all for one', so I knew that my win would affect all of them."

 

"Ronda didn't shake my hand, so I wanted to show her that I'm going after her little group."

Not a lot happened from there. But then Correia was booked against another Horsewoman - Shayna Baszler at UFC 177. A long-time friend and training partner of Rousey, Baszler came in confident. Things went badly wrong.

 

 

 

 

It was supposed to be an exhibition. An exhibition! Somebody forgot to tell Correia.

 

 

If she dies...she dies.

 

 

Ronda fucked off in her car, whacked 'No Easy Way Out' on the stereo and mourned the loss of her friend Shayna's MMA relevancy whilst reminiscing about the better days when her mates weren't jobbers.

 

 

 

But Correia's evil streak sunk even lower.

 

"I want to knock her out, show to everyone that she is a lie. She is not mentally healthy, she needs to take care of herself."

 

"When she realizes she is not everything that she believes she is, I don't know what might happen. I hope she does not kill herself later on (laughs)."

Rousey, whose dad committed suicide when she was a kid, understandably didn't see the funny side of that comment.

 

@bethecorreia suicide is no joke or selling point. My father will be with me the day I hand you the comeuppance you deserve.

Correia apologised, Rousey wasn't having it.

 

"I don't buy her apology. There's no way that she could know all these more obscure things about my life and not know about one of the most significant events that ever happened in my life. I don't know if I'm more offended by what she said or her phoney apology to save face for herself.

 

So no, this fight has become extremely personal to me. I've never wanted to beat someone so badly in my life and I'm definitely not gonna finish her off quickly. I wanna make sure she remembers every second of that day."

ROCKY, ROCKY, ROCKY, ROCKY!

 

Like Rocky, Ronda also fucked off into some secluded camp for this fight. Training in a barn in the mountains and all sorts. Not sure if she's currently rocking a beard and a leather jacket but I'll see what I can find out on that front.

 

Ronda herself was on Jimmy Kimmel last week and even she compared this fight to Rocky IV. But she confirmed she won't be doing the same post-fight speech as Rocky...

 

"Yeah, Rocky said - 'If I can change, and you can change'...I ain't changing".

 

 

 

Official Rousey vs Correia promo;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=e1ybZm2oNT8

 

The rest of the card isn't too bad either.

 

 

Shogun vs Little Nog 2 is the co-main event. A rematch ten years in the making. I've been wanting to see this rematch for years and now it's actually nearly here, I've got mixed feelings on it. If it happened in 2009 when Little Nog signed with the UFC and Shogun was a top contender, that would've been ideal. If it happened in 2010 or 2011, cool. But in 2015 I'm not sure it's not too late. They're both in a slump career-wise. They've been in the wars, especially Shogun, and both have been riddled with injuries. To top it all off, they're both coming into this fight off quick first round knockout losses. Shogun got KO'd in just 34 seconds, in Brazil of all places, by Ovince St Preux last November. Nogueira did a bit better, he lasted a whopping 44 seconds before Anthony Johnson left him in a heap against the fence.

 

I haven't really sold this fight to you, have I?

 

The thing is, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It doesn't help that it's got a hard as fuck act to follow.

 

 

 

Their first fight was one of the best fights in Pride history, and one of the best in the history of the 205lb division in MMA full-stop. A classic, razor close battle which saw Shogun come out on top. Barely.

 

But there's something telling me that this will deliver. I'm not expecting it to be as good as the first fight. It's unrealistic and frankly unfair at this point to hold them to that standard. But I do think that if these guys have one last war in them, this will probably be it. They're both in a must-win situation and the fight being in Brazil could bring something more out of them so there's a lot of pride on the line there as well.

 

I can see this being like Big Nog vs Randy Couture actually. Where we go in thinking 'this is a bit sad' and it ends up being a pleasant surprise that blows the roof off. Or it could look like a tribute act to the first fight but at half speed. We'll see. I hope they have a classic though. They need it.

 

The two TUF Brazil finals - Bruno vs Franca and Lopes vs Vieira - I'm going in totally blind. David, fill us in on these fights. These guys worth getting excited about?

 

 

Big Nog vs Struve is another fan friendly fight. You never see a shit fight out of either of these two and they're both just dangerous enough and yet just vulnerable enough that this can't really fail to be exciting. I'm a fan of both but I'm always Team Nog so I'm hoping he wins this fight and either retires in the cage (although I don't think that's likely) or sets up the rematch with Cro Cop for late this year. Nog vs Cro Cop 2 would serve as a fun headliner for a Fight Night in Japan, Brazil or Europe.

 

 

Bigfoot Silva vs Soa Palelei mightn't be a big fight for relevance at heavyweight but I'm looking forward to it just from the standpoint that it's two freakishly huge bastards locked in a cage.

 

Gadelha vs Aguilar could wind up being a contenders fight to determine the next challenger for Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Especially if Gadelha wins as she's the only fighter in the division who's given Joanna any hassle whatsoever. JJ is out injured at the moment but an impressive win here would put Gadelha right at the front of the line. A win for Aguilar would be huge too. Former WSOF champ making her UFC debut and beats who most consider the second best strawweight in the world. Could be a great fight too, especially if it's mostly a ground battle.

 

Prelims are alright...

 

Maia vs Magny...Eh. I'm not in love with it. I find Magny dull as fuck. To be fair, his last fight with Hyun Gyu Lim was fun, but I'm giving Lim the credit for that based on his track record of being fun to watch vs Magny's record of instantly forgettable boredom. And Maia I'm a big fan of but he's so hot and cold it's difficult to get excited for his fights because there seems to be a 50/50 chance it's going to be cack. I can see him steamrolling Magny though. I just don't think Magny's good enough at anything to make Maia hesitant or keep him at bay.

 

Feijao vs Cummins could be decent. I can see Cummins completely shutting him down with wrestling though.

 

Even the Fight Pass bit isn't too shabby. Always enjoy watching Clint Hester and Hugo Viana fight.

 

It's not 189 but the top fights here should be good. Shogun vs Nog 2 and Nog vs Struve should be bags of fun.

 

And I can't wait for the main event. I feel like I could eat nails, Stallion.

 

 

DRAGOOOOO! DRAGOOOOOOOOOOO!!

[ColinBollocks]

That twitter exchange is all you need. Rousey is coming to Brazil for a limb.

[Supremo]

I almost feel sorry for Correia, if it was a genuine mistake and she didn't know about Rousey's dad. Imagine accidentally signing your own death warrant like that. Ronda is going to murder this woman.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah for all the Rocky IV comparisons, I don't picture this as a Balboa vs Drago war in any way, shape or form. It's going to be a mugging.

 

Fair play to Correia for generating interest enough to get herself in this position as a contender. But be careful what you wish for and all that.

[pryko]

Balls to it.  I've voted Bethe by KO/TKO

[David]

Not sure if anyone else has been watching the TUF Brazil show? Yeah, the guys involved aren't any great shakes. The fights themselves should be decent enough, but I don't see them making any real inroads once they face fighters of a higher quality.

 

None of them were really big characters either, so they don't even have that going for them.

[jimufctna24]

If you take away the TUF fights, the Main Card is full of quality from top to bottom. the TUF fights just dilute the name value.

 

The top two male bouts feature fighters who have more miles on the clock than Del Boy's van. It could reasonably be argued that all 4 should have retired by now, not just because their careers have peaked, but also for the sake of their health.

 

That said, I don't think either bout will be boring. Both fights are likely to be slugfests, that end early after one fighter lands flush, or runs into a counter. They won't be drawn out struggles featuring amateur action (I.E Ortiz vs Bonnar)

[seanz25]

Shogun/Little Nov and the Strive fights are making this card for me.

 

Normally skip the women's fights as it just doesn't interest me, I enjoy Rouseys but is anyone else at the point where her fights don't exactly excite you massively as in its almost predictable she'll get the arm bar and it'll all be over in minutes.

[wandshogun09]

Nah it's not old to me yet. I never got bored of Goldberg crushing everyone on Nitro every week in two minutes with the same couple of moves either. Rousey's fights have become a different thing to almost any other fighter in the sport. It's not really 'will her opponent win?' It's 'how long will her opponent survive?' and 'can Ronda break her own record?' And when someone does finally take her into deep water (and someone will eventually) it'll be all the more special and that woman will instantly be a massive star for beating or even just dragging her into a war.

 

It'll be a while though. I can see Ronda going something mad like 25-0 with 25 finishes, 20 in under a minute etc etc before someone either catches her on an off day or another absolute beast comes along.

 

I've given up on the Cyborg fight completely now. But even if it happened now, I think the ship has sailed on Cyborg's best chance to win that fight. The time to catch Ronda was early on, 2010-2012 when she was still green to MMA. I'd still give her the best shot at Rousey, obviously, but I think Ronda's got too good in the last two years and she's widened the gap between her and Cyborg for me.

[seanz25]

Think that's a very valid point. I guess to me the women's stuff has never been much of an attraction personally so Rondas fights have become much of the same to me.

 

That being said we also did just have arguably the best built UFC fight alongside such a ridiculously strong card over this past weekend that in some respect this is a right step down in PPV cards.

[David]

The Cyborg fight would have to happen at 140lbs minimum I reckon, and she's aid that she's given herself another three years in the sport before retiring to start a family apparently.

[Egg Shen]

it's a strange little card this one. The TUF finale's are bonus fights really, nice little add on.

 

The actual 5 fight main card is a weird one...i imagine it'll create buzz because there's fan favorites all over it but it's pretty much all guys past their sell-by date. I just hope they all rise to the occasion. Big Nog should have retired after the Schaub KO, its been horribly downhill from there. Win or lose (and i hope it's a win) i hope he leaves his gloves in the cage that night.

 

Shogun/Lil Nog should have happened years ago but seeings as both guys have fallen by the wayside at the same kind of rate it still kind of makes sense. Nothing would make me happier than seeing these two go out and somewhat recreate their Pride classic.

[David]

I must be one of the few people who is actually looking forward to this card a lot. Sure, the main players are past their prime as you mention, but when they're matched correctly it still works. Those fights will be competitive.

 

Naturally, the big Nog fight is the main event in my eyes 

[seanz25]

With this being 7 fights on the main card is the PPV gonna be near 5 hours? I fucking hope not..

[Egg Shen]

Nah, i imagine they'll just pick up the pace between fights. If every fight goes the distance including the main event it's gonna seem like a bad idea but id say thats unlikely.