NORMALLY IN PIECES such as this one, we provide you with a few reasons why the evening’s UFC pay-per-view event will be worth watching.
When it comes to Ronda Rousey, however, we’ve had to stop. Irrespective of her greatness, is it really worth staying awake until 5am to watch a fight that’ll only last — in the case of her most recent bout against Cat Zingano, for example — 14 seconds?
This time, however, things might be a little different. Rousey has promised to make tonight’s UFC 190 headliner against Bethe Correia last a little longer than normal, as she’s keen to dish out some additional punishment to an opponent who has rubbed her up the wrong way.
On top of that, there’s plenty of good stuff to be found elsewhere on the Rio de Janeiro bill, such as the final prelim of the night between Demian Maia and Neil Magny, or the main-card heavyweight bout involving Stefan Struve and Minotauro Nogueira.
However, the star attraction is Rousey and her quest to defend her UFC women’s bantamweight belt successfully for the sixth time. The chances of her failing to do so are slim. So slim, in fact, that she looks set to be the biggest favourite in the history of the UFC, according to US betting markets.
Her price has been as low -1700 and if it stays that way come fight time, she’ll officially set the aforementioned record. To break that down, you’d have to bet $17 to win $1 in the event of a Rousey victory.
Heavily-favoured UFC champions have been slipping up recently — Cain Velasquez, Anthony Pettis and Renan Barao have all relinquished their belts after major upsets over the last 18 months. But this is different. Bethe Correia may be undefeated but she has never faced anyone of Rousey’s calibre… or even close to it.
Correia has succeeded in getting under Rousey’s skin after making insensitive comments which seemed to allude to the champion’s father’s suicide. There was bad blood between the pair anyway, but the only thing more daunting than Ronda Rousey is an angry Ronda Rousey, and that doesn’t bode well for the Brazilian.
Having home advantage might help Bethe Correia tonight but she’ll need more than an arena full of fans to overcome the most dominant fighter in mixed martial arts. Regardless of how long it lasts, the belt should be heading back to California afterwards.
Main card (BT Sport 2, 3am)
Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia
Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Glaico Franca vs. Fernando Bruno
Reginaldo Vieira vs. Dileno Lopes
Stefan Struve vs. Minotauro Nogueira
Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva vs. Soa Palelei
Claudia Gadelha vs. Jessica Aguilar
TV prelims (BT Sport 2, 1am)
Demian Maia vs. Neil Magny
Rafael Cavalcante vs. Patrick Cummins
Warlley Alves vs. Nordine Taleb
Iuri Alcantara vs. Leandro Issa
Early prelims (UFCFightPass.com, 12am)
Vitor Miranda vs. Clint Hester
Hugo Viana vs. Guido Cannetti
