After 17 professional fights, 11 of them under the UFC banner, former bantamweight title challenger Bethe Correia is ready to bid her career farewell at UFC Vegas 38.
Paired up against fellow Brazilian Karol Rosa, the ‘Pitbull’ could not have asked for a better city to hang up her gloves. Although she is an 11-fight Octagon veteran, Correia pointed out to Combate how she had never performed in Las Vegas before, calling this opportunity in her retirement fight a dream come true.
“I was so happy, because I’d never fought here (in Vegas) before,” Correia said. “Every time they booked a fight for me here, I either got injured or something else happened and they re-booked it elsewhere. Now it’s my last one. I’ve always dreamed of fighting here, it worked. It was only the place left for me to fight at.”
Looking back on her accomplishments, Bethe feels ready to call it a career after having helped build women’s MMA to what it is today. In Correia’s opinion, her title fight against Ronda Rousey at UFC 190 was a milestone for female athletes in Brazil and for herself, personally, too.
“It makes me really happy because I’ve contributed to that a little,” Correia said. “When I first started MMA, there were no women in the UFC. It was this crazy thing, where I would train and say ‘I’ll ge there’, even though there were no women there. I’m part of the first generation of women in the UFC. My fight against Ronda Rousey caused an unimaginable growth in Brazil. All the girls who had never heard of MMA now knew what it was. They would look for gyms to compete, to train or to learn more about it. That’s because there so many news about that fight.”
In her last outing, Correia (11-5-1) dropped a unanimous decision to Pannie Kianzad, back in July 2020. Before that, the 38-year-old had picked up unanimous decision win over Sijara Eubanks, in September 2019. Overall, the Pitbull holds a 5-5-1 UFC record.
Now, Correia is expected to take on Rosa at UFC Vegas 38, at the UFC Apex, on October 2. The card is scheduled to be headlined by a light heavyweight bout between contenders Thiago Santos and Johnny Walker.
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