Florian: Bethe win would be biggest upset in UFC history

Matt Serra beating Georges St-Pierre at UFC 69 on April 7, 2007 is widely considered to be the biggest upset in UFC title history. GSP was a 7:1 favorite.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is up to an 18:1 favorite Saturday night.

Rousey won her three fights as an amateur in 23, 57, and 24 seconds. ‘Rowdy’ was an Olympic medalist in combat sports, and her opponents were, well, amateurs. Now she is 11-0 as a pro, 10 of them in the first round, 8 in the first minute. Rousey’s last two title fights ended in 30 seconds, combined.

There has never been anything like it.

You don’t know what is going to happen in MMA, which is why you have the fight, but UFC color commentator and former contender Kenny Florian explains that Correia winning would be unprecedented.

“Honestly, I think it would be the biggest upset in UFC history,” said Florian to Shaun Al-Shatti for MMAFighting.com. “When you look at what Ronda has done, her skill level and [experience] compared to what Bethe has, or what we think she has, yeah, it would absolutely be the biggest upset. But for Ronda, we’re tuning in to see domination. We’re tuning to see destruction.

“It’s kind of like Usain Bolt. Even when you knew he was going to win the race, it was just how fast he was going to run the race. That’s kind of what you’re looking for here with Ronda, the manner in which she’s going to do it.”

Florian detailed where Correia has ot go to win.

“It’s not just one approach. I think it has to be a multipronged approach,” Florian says. “Everyone says you’ve got to avoid the clinch, but it goes beyond that. You have to be able to be an excellent striker, one that is very confident with distance control.

“You have to fully understand distance control and utilize lateral movement and break out of the clinch properly. Be able to know where to put your hands and where you are vulnerable. You have to have a greater understand of judo, of wrestling, of jiu-jitsu. You have to be able to kick her. Not many people really expose her leg kicking game. Not many people know how to counter her and deal with her speed, so it’s very difficult. And for Bethe Correia, I don’t think there’s one aspect of her game that she does better than Ronda.”

“I think we’ll look back on her as the woman who was far ahead of her time, maybe like our Sugar Ray Robinson. He was a guy who, of course he had a few losses, but when he was competing, when he was at his best, he was in a league all by himself. He was doing things that we really hadn’t seen before, and I think Ronda is at that level, maybe even more.

“The only thing she needs to be careful with is the people around her, them telling her how great she is and how she’s so dominant and how she’s going to kill everyone and all of that. That’s the kind of stuff that can creep in. Those thoughts are the ones that can be most harmful. But I don’t think it’s [gotten to] that point, and I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. When it’s going on for years and years and years, that’s when you start to get complacent. But I don’t know, I don’t think Ronda is going to be around the sport for too much longer. I think she’s probably going to have another two years of domination and she’s going to be gone.

“She’s running out of competition, she’s that good, and she’s got a lot of ways to make a lot of money.”

Ronda Rousey fights Bethe Correia in the main event of UFC 190, live Saturday night.