Prior to UFC 190, Mike James will provide his thoughts and analysis of several of the key match-ups for the pay-per-view event. Ronda “Rowdy” Rousey’ (11-0, 5-0 UFC, -1700 Favorite) Rousey has established herself as one of the best female athletes in the world today. The former Bronze medalist in Olympic Judo made a flawless transition to mixed martial arts. Her hard work, ethics, great coaches, and unbelievable tenacity have made her the king of the women’s bantamweight division. After going undefeated as an amateur, she had a great run in the now defunct Strikeforce organization, where she eventually won the title against Miesha Tate. After Strikeforce was bought out by the UFC, Rousey continued to dominate. She decimated Sara McMann, Miesha Tate (again), Alexis Davis, Liz Carmouche, and Cat Zingano. It is not the names she defeated that is so impressive, but it is how she defeated them. Ronda has cleaned out all the top contenders in the division and will look to add one more notch on her resume this Saturday, Ronda obviously relies heavily on her judo base, as she utilizes a variety of trips, throws, and tosses to get her opponents to the mat. Once she is on the mat she can submit her opponent instantly. Her last three fights lasted a total 96 seconds combined, which is an unbelievable feat. Her transitions and scrambling ability are very fast and extremely difficult to defend. On the mat she can pass guard well and can hit submissions from anywhere, especially her patented armbar, which is her signature move. Rousey has also vastly improved her striking under the tutelage of Edmond Tarverdyan. In the beginning of her career she would just bull rush her opponent into a clinch and get the fight to the mat. Now she has developed a good 1-2 combination and right hook, though she does not have much of a kicking game. Ronda’s striking repertoire and power are only going to improve because she is a tireless worker and constantly strives to improve. Bethe “Pitbull” Correia” (9-0, 3-0 UFC, +1100 underdog) To put it bluntly Bethe is in way over her head here. Her one way to win is by knockout and she basically has no power. She barely squeaked by two very low-level opponents before finishing the aging Shayna Baszler, while Rousey has beaten the best in the division and made it look easy. The Brazilian’s 9-0 record looks impressive from the outside, but if you take a closer look you will find a list of fighters that are not even close to UFC caliber. The UFC has been promoting this show by comparing Rousey’s dominance against Bethe’s punching power, which is quite laughable. She has two technical knockout wins in nine fights and in her most recent TKO, she hit Baszler about 40 times unanswered and Baszler didn’t even get knocked down before the ref intervened. Correia is primarily a boxer that relies on some pretty sharp punching combinations. As I said, she does not have much power and has not shown much of a ground game either. The stats may say she has good takedown defense, but that is because the bad competition she has faced thus far. She will have to close the distance on Rousey to get in punching range, but I do not see her doing so without getting tossed to the mat with ease. Thoughts on the Fight This is a completely one-sided fight, as the lines indicate. Bethe is just not a high quality opponent and I don’t think she will have anything to offer to the champion, who is the far superior athlete. I think Rousey could win by knockout or submission, but either way she is winning this fight and most likely without much trouble. Ronda Rousey defeats Bethe Correia by submission (round 1)
