Ronda Rousey lost her women’s bantamweight title when she got knocked out by Holly Holm at the UFC 193 pay-per-view (PPV) event last November in Australia. During the fight, “Rowdy” was unable to ground her opponent and as a result, was forced to play the stand-up game.
Probably not the best idea when faced with a former boxing champion.
Nevertheless, Rousey lumbered forward and tried to land a one-hitter quitter, while “The Preacher’s Daughter” kept her distance and beak-busted the Olympian with precision counter-punching. After the fight, coach Edmond Tarverdyan still wasn’t convinced Holm was the better striker (read those comments here).
Rousey’s mom, former Judo world champion Dr. AnnMaria De Mars, vents to Submission Radio (via MMA Fighting):
“I predicted it in advance. Ronda trained with an idiot. She trained with an idiot and a fraud. I would be shocked to find out that guy has any record at all. As far as I know, I saw him fight once and he fought somebody that had a record of like 6-20 and won on a split decision. The guy is a fraud. Ronda has a lot of talent. She came into that gym with a very strong background of training at the Olympic level and it carried her a long way. She needs to get away from some egomaniac fraud and be herself. Ronda as herself can beat anybody on the planet. I’m sad about it but you become an adult and make decisions. Sometimes you make mistakes and hopefully you learn from them. The difference between me and these other fighters’ moms is that I actually was a world champion,” said De Mars. “I didn’t just make it up and put it on my website. I actually really did compete for 14 years. So when someone is talking about coaching I know if it’s bulls**t and this guy is a complete fraud. It didn’t surprise me for a second. I don’t claim to know everything but I know what it takes to win a world championship. I know what good coaching is. I told Ronda more than once, ‘I know what training to beat the world looks like and this isn’t it.’ If she changes gyms she could go dramatically further. Even if she was with a good coach I think going to a different place would really improve her. When you’re with someone who wants to keep you from going to other places, that’s a bad coach that doesn’t have your best interests at heart. I hope [Tarverdyan] loses his license or goes to jail because either of those is a possibility. I think if she changes gyms she has an outstanding chance of winning. If she doesn’t? As a statistician, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. If you do the same things with the same people you can expect the same results.”
De Mars was calling Tarverdyan a terrible coach even before the Holm fight (proof).
As for him losing his license? That already happened in California, pending an appeal, after Tarverdyan was zapped for falsifying his application (details). In addition, he’s mixed up with the courts over a recent bankruptcy filing and still has to get his gym off the chopping block.
Rousey, ever the loyal student, remains by his side (just not here or here).