Bethe Correia receives death threats after street altercation
Bethe Correia: “”(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.”
#1 UFC women’s bantamweight Bethe Correia was at a hotel recently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with her boyfriend, Edelson Silva, one of Anderson Silva’s boxing coaches, and her sister Suzana. A taxi driver, Cleonardo de Freitas Alves, wanted to be paid for an unused trip, got into a fist fight with her boyfriend, threatened gunplay, Correia was taken to the police station, and then began to receive death threats on social media.
“He wanted us to pay him five reais (approximately two dollars), and I gave him seven. But he kept asking Edelson for more money, saying we wasted his time,” said Correia to Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting.com. “They started to argue and Edelson told him to f–k off, and that’s when the taxi driver left the car and started the fight with Edelson. They started to fight, to punch each other. My sister and I didn’t do anything.
“(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—. What would you do if a man says he’s grabbing a gun to threaten your family? Edelson was protecting us.”
“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. 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.”
Bethe Correia fight Ronda Rousey at UFC 190 on August 1, 2015 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
