Former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey had it all to play for at UFC 207. Victory over Amanda Nunes would have secured a record-breaking second reign as champion, but it was not to be.
Nunes was on peak form, and ‘Rowdy’ couldn’t last more than 48 seconds. On December 30, 2016, Rousey lost in a dramatic first round TKO to ‘The Lioness.’ With the loss came more criticism of her coach, Edmond Tarverdyan.
Coach Edmond To Blame?
After seeing how little Rousey’s striking had improved, many argued the point about Tarverdyan being ‘incompetent.’ Once it emerged that Travis Browne, Rousey’s boyfriend, had left Glendale Fighting Club, this simply strengthened the critic’s arguments.
Currently scheduled to face scary knockout artist Derrick Lewis, Browne reveals in a podcast appearance that he in fact hasn’t left coach Edmond. Here’s his explanation and defense of Tarverdyan:
Browne Defends Edmond
“What was happening is that I go to a certain point that was pretty high in the rankings based solely off of athletic ability. Really I didn’t have any coach that was like, ‘yes, that’s my student.’ I got a lot of my coaching from a lot of my training partners. They are high-level training partners, you had Phil Davis, Brandon Vera, Jon Jones, even Andrei Arlovski, guys who were in the gym. Yes, I had coaches, they were good coaches, I’m not saying they were bad coaches, but I never really learned how to fight technically. So I felt I got to a certain spot in my career based on my athletic ability, and I wanted to learn specifics of the sport.”
“I went to Edmond and started learning specifics of the sport, but then, in my own mind, I look back now, I started to depend too much on my skill level and not use my athletic ability. So now I’m sitting here after the Werdum fight thinking, ‘What the hell is going on?’ I need to go back to being athletic as I’m going to be but also using the skill set that I’ve learned over the years and incorporating it all.”
“I think it’s easy to judge from the outside. Anybody that I’ve ever had in camp, to work with me as a training partner, they are always like, ‘Edmond knows what he’s talking about.’ He has a great fight IQ and he has great coaching. It’s about the athletes going out there and performing. Every coach has lost. Every champion, with the exclusion of Jon Jones, has lost. Why didn’t the community come down on those coaches? Where was everybody then? Why are you singling him out? It isn’t fair.”
Ronda Retired?
“She’s doing great,” Browne said. “She’s a great woman. You know, that’s another thing we have to be careful about. People may try to get to her through me, or whatever, or this or that, I’ve learned my lesson. In that aspect of things, in that case, she’s doing great and she’s in a good place. What she is doing is up to her to let people know.”
“Her and I haven’t had that talk,” Browne said. “For her, that’s going to be a decision that she is going to make. But honestly, I don’t know. I think everyone is so eager to give their opinions, but you kinda need to go to the source. In my opinion, opinions are like ****. Nobody wants to see it or hear it. That’s up to her and the way that she is going to deal with things. She has her team and her group that deals with that kind of stuff. When the time comes, she’s going to do it her way and that’s what people, who support her, are going to appreciate. She’s just going to do it her way like she’s done everything else. It’s her way.”
