Ronda Rousey took over the Internet this week—at least, in the sports corner of it—even Cosmo got in on the action. Rousey's opponent, Bethe Correia, has been along for the ride.
She has definitely kept things interesting, to her credit. Correia fought her way into this match by beating two of Rousey's friends in Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler but ruffled feathers with a discussion of Rousey potentially killing herself with a loss. Correia regretted the comment, per Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com, but Rousey was having none of it.
Even in the fallout from that gaffe, Correia has remained unflappable, especially for someone who holds zero wins over top-10 opponents in the women's bantamweight division. It's like she knows something the rest of us don't, or she just has the best poker face in the MMA world.
Correia is a massive underdog (+750), per Odds Shark. Maybe she has a Hail Mary pass in her—and anything that can happen inside an MMA cage usually does—but former UFC fighter and current commentator Kenny Florian succinctly summed up what's at stake when he told Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com that he thinks a Correia win "would be the biggest upset in UFC history."
The pre-fight media-day faceoffs took place Thursday. Correia got in Rousey's face and said a few words to her with intensity on her face. Rousey was having none of it.
The big question on many people's minds is this: What does Rousey have in store for Correia? She told TMZ Sports that she's going to make Correia suffer:
If I beat you quickly, that's me at my nicest and most merciful. ... That means you get to go home unscathed with a paycheck. If I make the fight last longer, that means I don't like you and I want you to go home looking different than the way you walked in...and I don't like this chick.
The weigh-ins kick off at 5 p.m. ET on Friday, July 31. If you cannot stream the live video above, then follow along with our live blog for real-time text updates.
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