There are fight-hyping mind games and then there’s crossing the line.
Ronda Rousey will fight undefeated Brazilian bantamweight Bethe Correia at UFC 190 on 1 August and the trash talk has taken a turn for the worse today on the part of the challenger.
Correia told Brazilian outlet Combate (as translated by MMAMania)
“I want to knock her out, show to everyone that she is a lie. She wants to stand up with me, let’s see. I want to humiliate her and show the word she has no MMA. She is focused on movies, books. I am much stronger, I come from a developing country, where people are struggling to survive, not to starve. It is very different from her life of reality. Under pressure, she is proving weak. When her mom put pressure on her, she ran away from home. When she lost, it was because of drugs. That’s not a superhero. She is not mentally healthy, she needs to take care of herself. She is winning, so everybody is around her cheering her up, but when she realizes she is not everything that she believes she is, I don’t know what might happen. I hope she does not kill herself later on (laughs).”
Pitbull was presumably referring to the much publicised fact that Rousey’s father committed suicide when Ronda was a young child, as detailed in the recent biography of the first ever women’s champion in the UFC.
To joke about subjects so personal and tragic definitely crosses the line between trash-talk and repulsive remarks.
We’re not sure how the neutrals were divided before Correia made the comments but we think an awful lot of them have just converted to Team Ronda.
