Don’t insult Ronda Rousey’s family.
Brazilian Bethe Correia learned the hard way Saturday night at UFC 190. Correia, who had joked about the suicide of Rousey’s father in the leadup to the fight, found herself unconscious on the mat just 34 seconds into their main event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“I hope no one brings up my family anymore when it comes to fights,” Rousey said. “I hope this is the last time.”
With the knockout victory, Rousey (12-0), of Venice Beach, California, added to her remarkable resume. The UFC women’s bantamweight champion has won each of her past three fights in under a minute and has 11 first-round career finishes.
A huge right hand to the temple did the damage, but Rousey added a left to the face as Correia dropped for good measure.
“Instead of trying to force the finish,” said Rousey, whose father, Ron, died when she was 8 years old, “I decided to overwhelm her with striking first so she’d want to clinch first, and that’s exactly what happened.”
In the co-feature bout, light heavyweights Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira reprised their 2005 classic.
Nogueira (21-7) nearly finished the former UFC light heavyweight champ in the opening round with a huge straight right hand and a follow-up flurry. But Rua weathered the storm and went on to pace himself to a unanimous decision victory, the same result as their previous fight. The judges’ scores were 29-28 across the board.
In the bantamweight final, Reginaldo Vieira claimed a unanimous decision over Dileno Lopes (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). Then in the lightweight final, Glaico Franca submitted Fernando Bruno via rear-naked choke at 4:36 of the third round.
While the fans waited in eager anticipation of the main event between Rousey and Correia, the next title fight in the women’s 115-pound weight class came into focus.
Brazil’s Claudia Gadelha made her case for a rematch with current champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk with a dominant performance over Jessica Aguilar (19-5). Gadelha (13-1) used a punishing standup attack and strategic takedowns to dominate Aguilar and end her 10-fight win streak.
A heavyweight matchup of “Bigfoot vs. The Hulk” went in the former’s favor, as Brazil’s Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva brutalized Australian Soa “The Hulk” Palelei in a second-round TKO.
Silva (19-7, 1 no-contest) used a combination of uppercuts and knees to drop Palelei (22-5) and finish him via TKO at 41 seconds of the second round.
Silva snapped a three-fight losing streak, the last two of which were in front of his Brazilian home crowds.
In another heavyweight bout, 7-foot-tall Dutch heavyweight Stefan Struve was too much for aging legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to handle.
The former champion had too much pride to get finished in front of his Brazilian fans, but while he went the distance, he had no answer for Struve’s reach advantage. Struve (26-7) peppered Nogueira (34-10-1, 1 no-contest) for a unanimous decision victory, sending the latter to his third straight loss.