On Friday, at the UFC 189 World Tour Press Conference, UFC President Dana White made the UFC 190 title fight between Ronda Rousey and Bethe Correia official.
Ronda Rousey says Bethe Correia fight is ‘Personal’
Correia may be undefeated, but she isn’t the true number one contender. Rousey made it clear that this fight wasn’t because she deserved it, but because it was ‘personal.’
“I would definitely say this is personal,” Rousey said at the UFC 189 World Tour Press Conference. “My dad had a great saying when someone needed to be shown what’s up – he would say that this person needs to have a come to Jesus meeting. Bethe is going to have her own come to Jesus meeting in Brazil. I’m going to come right down here, I promised Brazilian fans I would do whatever I could to come down here and fight. I meant my promise and I’m happy to come down here and entertain you guys while I discipline this girl.”
As the champion, terms of the fight are usually their choice. Do they want to travel? Do they want home field advantage? Well, for Rousey, she wants to put on a show for the Brazilians and make sure Correia knows what happened to her inside the Octagon.
“My best performances in my whole career have been in Brazil,” said Rousey. “I’ve been booed in Brazil, I’ve been cheered in Brazil, but I’ve always fought above myself. What I really need when I fight is passion and this is the most passionate country that I’ve ever been to perform in front of. It’s a real pleasure to be here, whether as a bad guy or a good guy or whatever. I felt that if I’m really going to make an example out of Bethe, I don’t just want to defeat her, I want her to leave that arena embarrassed. And the best way to do that is to come here and beat her in her own back yard.”
This will be Rousey’s second title defense in 2015. At UFC 184 in January, “Rowdy” finished Cat Zingano in just 14-seconds. This performance set a number of records, including first title fight to be finished without a strike landed.
UFC 190 goes down on August 1, 2015 and is expected to take place at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
