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#3 Rousey conquers Brazil – UFC 190
Perhaps the most notable thing about the UFC’s shows in Brazil is the level of support that any fighters to hail from the country get from the crowd. Fighters that aren’t recognized as stars at all in the US – names like Francisco Trinaldo, Fabio Maldonado and Warlley Alves – regularly get huge reactions from the Brazilian crowd, while even popular foreign fighters tend to be booed out of an arena – or told they’re about to die, in Portuguese of course.
That’s why it was so fascinating to see the crowd reactions in Brazil when then-UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey came to town for her title defense against Bethe Correia at UFC 190. Most people had expected Rousey to play the role of the foreign villain, with Correia acting as the plucky local challenger – but instead the script was flipped.
‘Rowdy Ronda’ was treated just as she was in the US – like a beloved rock star – and somehow, the fans in Rio de Janeiro were more behind her than they were ‘The Pitbull’. More than any other moment in Rousey’s UFC career, this felt like a tipping point for her – the moment in which she crossed the boundary from UFC superstar to cultural phenomenon.
And sure enough, the champion lived up to the billing; Correia came out to brawl and Rousey obliged her before turning her lights out with a right hand in an exchange in just 34 seconds. It was an unbelievable knockout worthy of winning any fight, and after a somewhat disappointing under card, it was the perfect way to end a big show for the promotion.
UFC 190 ended up drawing 900,000 buys on pay-per-view – cementing her as arguably the biggest draw in MMA at the time – and incredibly, although nobody would’ve guessed it at the time, it turned out to be Rousey’s final win inside the Octagon. 18 months later she’d be gone for good – after becoming one of the few foreign fighters to truly conquer Brazil.
