Undefeated Brazilian prospect Bethe “Pitbull” Correia made a successful Octagon debut on short notice tonight at UFC Fight Night 33: “Hunt vs Bigfoot” in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Correia took a razor-thin Split Decision victory over veteran Julie “Fireball” Kedzie on the main card.
Tonight’s bantamweight bout was very close through two rounds and both women had success with their striking combinations on the feet. Correia pressed the action with punches and a takedown in the final round and her late-fight offensive rally proved to be enough for her to take the narrow win.
Correia (7-0-0) and Kedzie (16-13-0) exchanged hard right hands in the opening seconds of the fight and Kedzie went high with kicks. She mixed up her strikes well and countered leg kicks from Correia with a left hook and a side kick. Correia avoided a spinning backfist and clinched against the cage, but she could not keep Kedzie in place for long. Correia flurried to the body and clinched after ducking under a spinning heel kick. Kedzie threw knees in close, but Correia took her down before the bell.
Kedzie remained effective with combinations of kicks and punches in the second round and she held an edge in the striking exchanges with Correia, who appeared to be content to keep her distance and counter. Correia landed a right hand and Kedzie immediately answered back with knees and standing elbows. She followed with a spinning back kick to the liver and a front kick, then fought off a Correia takedown attempt in the final minute.
Correia scored with a powerful right hook early in the final round and Kedzie’s left eye began to swell up. She pressured Kedzie with punches and body kicks. Correia caught a kick and took Kedzie down, then worked to take her back against the cage. Kedzie got back to her feet, but Correia remained the aggressor late in the round and she landed two left hooks before time expired.
With the fighters splitting rounds one and two, the bout ultimately came down to the third round and two judges awarded the final stanza to Correia. As a result, the Brazilian walked away with her biggest victory to date in her short-notice UFC debut. She has won all four of her fights this year.
Winner: Bethe Correia by Split Decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29) after three rounds. She improves to 7-0-0.
(Photo Credit: UFC)
I just watched the fight, and I can’t see how any judge scored it for Julie… Correia clearly won rounds 1 and 3, and 2 was really close and could have gone either way (although I had Correia winning it).
It’s sad to see Julie lose again and retire… she had a great career.
On a side note, what’s up with these fly weights muscling bantamweights around? Jessica Eye, Cat Zingano, and Bethe Correia seem stronger than some of the top bantamweights… and, on Saturday, we saw Barb Honchak muscling Leslie Smith around as well… Crazy!