Everything was coming up roses for Bethe Correia.
She had just been given a title shot against UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in her home country of Brazil and must have been feeling like she was in a dream.
But that’s quickly turned into a nightmare and the undefeated Brazilian is now receiving death threats after footage has emerged appearing to show Correia and her boxing coach boyfriend getting into a street fight with a cab driver in Rio de Janeiro.
Correia’s story is that herself and boyfriend Edelson Silva called a taxi to their hotel in Rio before deciding to walk to their destination instead. When the cab arrived, the driver asked demanded Silva pay money for wasting his time.
After Silva paid the driver, Correia claims that he was still unhappy with the amount paid and threatened the couple which led to the fight breaking out.
Speaking to MMAFighting, Correia said: “(Alves) said he would grab a gun at the glove compartment. When he said that, my sister went after him, but I pulled her away. I could have used all my martial art knowledge to stop him, but I didn’t want to fight. I was calm, but he was threatening us.
“The taxi driver didn’t even recognize me. When the police showed up, they wanted to take Edelson with him, but the hotel’s receptionist said ‘ah, that fighter over was also involved’, so they called my room and asked for me to go with them. The taxi driver didn’t recognize me, but now he wants to use this to become famous. Edelson was just protecting us. This is bulls–t. What would you do if a man says he’s grabbing a gun to threaten your family? Edelson was protecting us.”
Since the incident, Correia claims to have received death threats on her various social media platforms which she has since deleted with one of the more sinister coming from someone posting as Bruno Assuncao.
“I received a lot of threats, but I deleted everything because I didn’t want to pay attention to all this. But I saved this with the gun because he is disgusting,” Correia said. “He wants to attack me because I’m at the best moment of my career. Unfortunately, that’s the price we pay for the fame. I don’t know what else he wants from me. I’m 30-year-old and I never fought in the street.”
