Glendale Gym head coach Edmond Tarverdyan has recently discussed some of the details surrounding Ronda Rousey’s painful battering at the hands of Amanda Nunes in Dec. 2016
Rousey was returning to the octagon for the first time since her shocking knockout loss to Holly Holm the year prior at UFC 193.
The former dominant women’s bantamweight champion refrained from media obligations prior to the bout with Amanda Nunes at UFC 207, which was perceived by many to be disrespectful and against the grain.
Tarverdyan recently spoke to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, where he explained the reasons behind Rousey’s “media blackout” (via MMAFighting):
“We’ve done too much media and a lot of work,” Tarverdyan said. “So we decided just to stay away for one fight. I don’t think it was a big deal, just to stay away and focus on the fight. So we could have a different outcome — and we fell short. It didn’t work, but it didn’t mean we disrespected anybody. It was just a decision to make life easier and just move on like that.”
“She wasn’t feeling that good,” Tarverdyan said. “Body wasn’t keeping up and we had to eliminate a lot of things so she could at least focus on training and make the fight happen somehow. That’s a decision we made. It had to be that way, so I wasn’t surprised [she didn’t do media]. I wasn’t.”
While that approach was ultimately in vain as Rousey was annihilated in just 48-seconds against her Brazilian opponent, Tarverdyan saw a positive in what many could only describe as a career-ending, systematic beating:
“Nunes is a big puncher and Ronda got caught from the beginning,” Tarverdyan said. “You saw how fit she was — she didn’t even go down. Ronda took all those shots and she didn’t take a knee. She was stopped on her feet. She was so fit, she was so strong. That shows she was so strong and she’s not going down from all those big shots that she took. A lot of these girls, whoever took Amanda’s shots, they all went down. And she didn’t.”
