UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey retained her title with another quick and impressive victory tonight in the main event of UFC 190: “Rousey vs Correia” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rousey knocked out the previously unbeaten Bethe “Pitbull” Correia in just 34 seconds.
Strawweight contender Claudia “Claudinha” Gadelha made a strong case for a UFC title shot by dominating former WSOF champ Jessica “Jag” Aguilar en route to a lopsided Unanimous Decision win. Gadelha campaigned for a rematch with UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
Rousey (12-0-0) closed the distance right away and put Correia (9-1-0) on the defensive with a series of short uppercuts. Correia lost her balance and rolled backwards, which allowed Rousey to swarm on her with punches as Correia got back to her feet. With Correia pinned against the cage, Rousey rocked her with a flurry and dropped her face-first to the canvas with a final right hook that finished the fight.
Tonight’s quick win came as no surprise, and Rousey has finished four straight fights in 66 seconds or less, but her improved striking will provide future opponents with a greater challenge. Rousey’s next foe will be rival Miesha “Cupcake” Tate, whom Rousey has twice submitted in the past. Tate earned another shot at Rousey’s UFC title this past weekend when she defeated Jessica “Evil” Eye at UFC on FOX 16.
Winner: Ronda Rousey by KO (Punch) at 0:34 of round one. She improves to 12-0-0 and remains the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion.
Earlier on tonight’s card, Gadelha (13-1-0) spoiled Aguilar’s (19-5-0) UFC debut with a dominant and humbling decision victory. Aguilar, who proclaimed that she had “decided to become UFC champion” upon signing with the UFC, was soundly outstruck throughout the one-sided fight tonight.
Gadelha mixed things up with punching combinations and knees in the opening round, and Aguilar struggled to land anything. Her nose was bloodied by Gadelha’s jabs and Gadelha slammed her down into back control before the bell. Gadelha hurt Aguilar with a right hook early in round two and she kept the pressure on with more punches as Aguilar retreated to the cage. Gadelha took her down again, but Aguilar returned to her feet and finally found some success with right hands and leg kicks. Gadelha answered back with uppercuts and knees, and she took Aguilar back down in the final seconds.
Aguilar slowed Gadelha down with leg kicks in round three, but Gadelha still connected with hard knees and one-two combinations. She stuffed a takedown attempt from Aguilar, whose right eye swelled up. Gadelha countered Aguilar’s punches with quick one-twos as the round progressed. Aguilar continued to score with chopping leg kicks, but Gadelha took her down once more to seal the fight in her favour.
All three judges scored the fight for Gadelha, who rebounded from her contentious Split Decision loss to Jędrzejczyk in December. Jędrzejczyk has since gone on to win and successfully defend the UFC Women’s Strawweight Championship, and Gadelha has set her sights on avenging her past loss and taking home Jędrzejczyk’s title. Her performance tonight was one of her best to date.
Winner: Claudia Gadelha by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) after three rounds. She improves to 13-1-0.
(Photo Credit: UFC)
JAG has been exposed. She was making claims many times that the UFC didn’t have the #1 strawweight, just to have her nose broken and losing the fight to Gadelha everywhere.
To make things worse, Gadelha broke a finger in the beginning of the first round, and that didn’t prevent from her from running over JAG like that.
Ronda is god and JAG showed she is not among the elite at 115 and was never the top strawweight. This is why I want every top fighter in UFC. So we can settle things in the cage and get true rankings. Otherwise fighters like JAG will just talk about how good they are.