Bethe Correia has apologized to Ronda Rousey after making an ill-judged comment earlier this week regarding suicide that touched a raw nerve since the champion’s own father died that way when she was just eight years old.
“@RondaRousey Never knew what happened to ur dad,” Correia wrote on Twitter. “I’m humble enough to ask u for forgiveness. Family is a godly bless to me. See u in #UFC190”
Later, Correia talked to the media in Brazil to further explain her side of the story.
“I was just showing her weak psychology for sports,” Correia said. “I knew her father had died when she was a kid, but I didn’t know he committed suicide. Ronda humiliated me. She said I would have a meeting with Jesus, that she would humiliate me inside my house. So I responded talking about her history.
“I said she ran away from home, her past with bulimia, did drugs after the Olympics. But I didn’t know about this episode with her father.
“Ronda has a bad habit of humiliating people. She created this media that she’s a superhero, so that makes her comfortable to talk trash about anyone,” she said. “I’ve seen UFC ring girls complaining about it, even about her thinking she’s prettier. She talks about anyone who gets press.”
It’s certainly possible that Correia made a genuine mistake without realizing the personal nature of her remark. However, given that she’s very well informed about other aspects of the champion’s life story and frequently references them in her interviews (such as her drug use after the Olympics, bulimia, etc), it seems odd that she wouldn’t know about Rousey’s father’s suicide since that’s been the part of her back story that’s attracted the most attention over the years.
Either way, regardless of Correia’s apology the bad blood between these two is pretty much at boiling point now and it’s going to be quite a spectacle to watch Rousey heading into her rival’s own backyard in Brazil to settle their differences inside the Octagon at UFC 190 on August 1st.
