Did Bethe Correia Cross The Line With Rousey Suicide Talk?

MMA is a sport and we watch it for entertainment, but sometimes we forget that these athletes have real lives outside of the octagon. They all come from different walks of like, they all have their own stories of struggle and success and they all have families and friends that support them and love them.

That’s what I think about when I read UFC bantamweight Bethe Correia’a recent comments.

“Under pressure, she is proving weak. When her mom put pressure on her, she ran away from home. When she lost, it was because of drugs. That’s not a superhero. She is not mentally healthy; she needs to take care of herself. She is winning, so everybody is around her cheering her up, but when she realizes she is not everything that she believes she is, I don’t know what might happen. I hope she does not kill herself later on (laughs).” via Combate.

If you haven’t followed Ronda Rousey’s story or read her recent memoir ‘My Fight/Your Fight’, then you might not understand the full impact of these comments. Rousey’s father suffered a terrible injury that brought him grueling, lasting back pain. When Rousey was eight years old, her father took his own life because of the non-stop pain he endured. The champion has talked about the traumatic event before and in her book says that no one in her family was the same after that.

Even without Rousey’s personal history with the topic, Correia’s comments are still insensitive, but the fact that her opponent has been through something like that makes them so much more intolerable.

Rousey responded to the comments on her Twitter:

@bethecorreia suicide is no joke or selling point. My father will be with me the day I hand you the comeuppance you deserve.

— Ronda Rousey (@RondaRousey) May 28, 2015

Then the challenger said:

@RondaRousey Never knew what happened to ur dad.I'm humble enough to ask u for forgiveness. Family is a godly bless to me. See u in #UFC190

— Bethe (@bethecorreia) May 28, 2015

It’s so hard to imagine that Correia didn’t know about Rousey’s dad, but let’s say she really had no clue…does that justify her comments? So she’s sorry that she said it to Rousey but still thinks it’s funny to joke about suicide in general?

What do you guys think, chime in and say whether you thought she went too far.

By: Ryan C. Miller | @ryancmiller1630

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