The latest word out of Brazil is that UFC woman’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will fight Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in Rio De Janeiro on August 1st.
If so that’s perhaps a faster than expected turnaround for Rousey who was reported to be starting shooting a new movie ‘Mile 22’ in May.
Correia was a fighter Rousey had mentioned as a potential next opponent following her 14 second defeat of Cat Zingano at UFC 184 recently and more recently she had added more fuel to that fire by stating that she wanted to have her own ‘Rocky IV’ moment by heading into enemy territory and fighting Correia in her own hometown in Brazil.
For the most part it’s Correia who has been pushing for a fight with Rousey though, calling her out a number of times and taking out two of the champion’s team-mates, Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler during her 3-0 stint in the UFC to date certainly helped get her attention.
In total Correia owns a 9-0 career record, just two wins less than Rousey, though the level of competition the champion has faced to date is far higher than her next opponent.
That’s reflected in their respective rankings with Correia currently at No.7 in the division, while Rousey is the undisputed queen of the bantamweight division and sits at No.6 on the overall UFC pound for pound rankings alongside the likes of Cain Velasquez and TJ Dillashaw.
The UFC will be delighted to have Rousey back in the Octagon again in relatively short order as she’s now living up to her superstar status at the box office with The Wrestling Observer recently reporting that the UFC 184 PPV she headlined last month may have done in excess of 600,000 buys.
That’s very impressive, particularly as the rest of the fight card was weak by the UFC’s recent standards. It’s also a testament to the champion’s growing mainstream popularity that one of the big talking points emerging from the recent announcement of boxing’s fight of the century between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao was whether Rousey could beat Mayweather in the Octagon.
