Bethe Correia Received Death Threats After Fight With Taxi Driver

Ronda Rousey’s next title challenger, Bethe Correia, has been receiving some threatening messages following an altercation with a taxi driver in Brazil, seen in the video above.

According to Correia, her boyfriend Edelson Silva, her sister and herself called a taxi to go to dinner. They decided to go across the street instead, which means they didn’t need the taxi. Apparently the driver, Cleonardo de Freitas Alves, wasn’t pleased with this and demanded that they pay anyway. Here’s what Correia had to say about the incident.

“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.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–t. What would you do if a man says he’s grabbing a gun to threaten your family? Edelson was protecting us.”

Then, after the incident, Correia started to receive threatening messages on her social media. One in particular featured a picture of a handgun and called her obscene names and threatened to kill her and her boyfriend.

“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.”

[Source: MMAFighting]

By: Ryan C. Miller | @ryancmiller1630