I’ve been holding off on writing this article for a few days, because of the serious nature of the insults Bethe Correia directed towards Ronda Rousey; however I feel that it is important to understand why she is facing so much backlash.

Earlier this week, Bethe Correia, who is set to face Bantamweight Ronda Rousey in UFC 190 on August 1, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, took their rivalry in an interview with Combate, too far, stating,

“Under pressure, she’s showing she’s weak. When mommy put some pressure, she ran away from home. When she lost, she did drugs… There are a lot of people around her, she’s winning, but when she realizes that’s not everything, I don’t know what might happen. I hope she doesn’t commit suicide [laughs].”

Now there has been a lot of back and forth between Rousey and Correia, and before highly publicized fights, there usually is. But did Correia go too far? I believe she did.

Ronda Rousey’s father committed suicide when she was only 8 years old, a fact that should be off limits, and not used as cannon fodder in their feud.

Rousey has attacked Correia in the past,

“My dad had a great saying when somebody needed to be shown what’s up. He would say that this person needs to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting and Bethe is going to have her own ‘come to Jesus’ meeting in Brazil. I’m happy to come down here while I discipline this girl.”

But what Correia did, is of a different nature. She made light of suicide. Although she later recanted, stating she did not know about Rousey’s father, the fact still stands, that she decided that suicide was not an important enough matter to not use as an insult, to not use as trash talk.

Regardless of Correia and Rousey’s relationship and the ongoing slew of trash talk, suicide is a serious matter, that affects so many of us.

According to the CDC, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US, and there is one death by suicide every 13 minutes. In 2013, 41,149 deaths from suicide, and worldwide over 800,000 people die each year from suicide. There is one death every 40 seconds worldwide by suicide.

Suicide is not something to make light of. It is never to be used as an insult or used as a joke. I can say with almost complete certainty that we have all known someone who has commited suicide, attempted suicide, or at least know of someone.

Correia deserves all the backlash and terrible PR she is getting from her statement. No amount of apologies or ‘oops, I didn’t know’ can make it okay to joke about someone killing themselves. It not only takes a rivalry too far, it belittles a struggle so many people are going through or have gone through. She is a public figure, an athlete that numerous people look up to, and when you take that role, you hold yourself to a standard that does not let bashing suicide be okay. It is never okay, and it is definitely not okay for Bethe Correia.

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