The UFC returns to pay-per-view as UFC 190 commences on Saturday night from the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The main event features Ronda Rousey defending the UFC women's bantamweight championship against Bethe Correia.
In the co-feature, former light heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua battles Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in 205-pound action.
Other action includes former interim heavyweight champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira faces off with Stefan Struve and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva goes against Soa Palelei in heavyweight action.
Coverage will begin on Sunday 9am (AEST). The main card will air on pay-per-view beginning at 12pm (AEST).
The five biggest reasons to watch UFC 190:
1. The most dominant athlete in the world returns. Rousey's dominance is on another level when she steps into the octagon. She doesn't get paid by the hour. The mantra in her mind is go in there, crush, not get hit and win the fight. Her last three fights have lasted a total of 96 seconds. Rousey is a significant favorite at -2000. Odds that high show the dominance and how good Rousey really is. She is on another level from all the other girls. "Rowdy" should run through Correia, extend her record to 12-0 and successfully defend her championship for the sixth consecutive time.
2. Can Correia shock the world? The Brazilian is a 10-to-1 underdog heading into the fight she has waited one year. Correia never has fought against someone close to the caliber of Rousey. She tried to take the route of trash talking and play that game. We won't know how effective it will be until the fight takes place. "Pitbull" will have to keep it on the feet and try to land that one big shot. Anything is possible and maybe this could be MMA's Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson.
3. Old-school war. Rua and Nogueira battled in an all-out war in June 2005 in the now-defunct PRIDE organization. Rua won by unanimous decision in one of the best matchups the promotion ever put on. A lot has changed since. Rua became a UFC light heavyweight champion and Nogueira has battled the injury bug and have never seen him at his best since he entered the UFC in 2009. "Shogun" has lost two in a row and "Lil Nog" lost his last bout to Anthony Johnson last July. Old-school MMA fans have been clamoring for this rematch for a long time. Even though both guys are nowhere near title contention, it should be a fun fight to watch.
4. Next women's strawweight title contender. To kickoff the main card, Jessica Aguilar makes her long awaited UFC debut when she battles No. 1 contender Claudia Gadelha. Aguilar, who is regarded as the best strawweight in the world, entered the World Series of Fighting before the UFC implemented the 115-pound weight class. She went there and won their world championship, but didn't defend her belt against world-class competition. Realizing that, she got out of her contract and signed with the UFC shortly thereafter. Gadelha is coming off a loss to champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in December in a close fight that some people felt she won. The winner of this fight should get the next title shot.
5. End of a legend. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is regarded as the one of the great heavyweights in the history of MMA. Nogueria is a former PRIDE heavyweight champion and a former interim UFC heavyweight champion. He has faced the best heavyweight the sport has had to offer like Fedor Emelianenko, Fabricio Werrdum, Cain Velasquez and Josh Barnett. But in recent years, the former champ has fallen on hard times. "Big Nog" has lost three of his last four fights and all of them by stoppage. In Stefan Struve, he is facing a man that will stand in the pocket and has a decent ground game. Win, lose or draw, this should be the end of Nogueira. Going in his home country would be a great way to go out.
Steven Muehlhausen is a boxing and MMA writer and contributor for Sporting News. You can email him at [email protected] and can find him on Twitter @SMuehlhausenMMA.