Brendan Schaub had some criticism for Travis Browne’s decision to leave Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA to join Ronda Rousey’s coach Edmond Tarverdyan at Glendale Fighting Club. Schaub called the move “100 percent” a mistake.
Tarverdyan fired back on Monday’s The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.
“Honestly, somebody asked me if he can fight,” Tarverdyan said. “I think he can’t fight for s—. That’s what I think.”
Browne and Schaub meet at UFC 181: Hendricks vs. Lawler II on Saturday night in Las Vegas in a pivotal heavyweight bout. Browne left Jackson’s to train with Tarverdyan for this camp and Schaub was extremely critical of the decision on Joe Rogan’s podcast in September.
“Obviously, I know Ronda very well and I know that camp pretty well,” Schaub said. “I’m not going to go into detail but I think it’s a great thing for me that he’s training there. I’ll put it like that. I think it’s a good thing for me.”
Tarverdyan said that Schaub’s comments might stem from the fact that Schaub once wanted to train at Glendale Fighting Club in Los Angeles and Tarverdyan wasn’t interested.
“I pick and choose my fighters, I’ll tell you this much for sure,” Tarverdyan said. “It’s the way they approach me and the way they speak to me before they really want to be in my gym and train with me. I have heard that he did want to work with me and I said that’s not the way it’s going to be happening. So, stuff like that has happened, so I don’t know if there’s hard feelings or not. It really doesn’t matter at this point. I don’t want to cause any unnecessary drama.”
Tarverdyan said he watched Schaub’s fight with Andrei Arlovski at UFC 174 in June and came away unimpressed. The coach said Schaub had Arlovski on the ground and could not hurt him.
“I didn’t see anything special,” Tarverydan said. “Nothing really happened to the guy. A heavyweight punching on the ground, you have to do some damage, you know what I mean? There’s other fighters out there in the 135-pound division, even Ronda, when she hits someone on the ground it’s totally different.”
Tarverdyan said he has also warned Browne about Schaub’s stalling tactics, saying Schaub doesn’t fight, he just “survives” in the Octagon.
“It’s not gonna happen,” Tarverdyan said. “I talked about that with Travis. He’s aware. That’s why you have to be working all the time, not letting him mindf— you, try to hold onto you or anything like that, for you to get off what you’re supposed to do. And you get a win like that? It’s not right. It doesn’t look good. It’s embarrassing. It’s something that I would never want to see. The fans and the crowds, everybody — I don’t think anybody enjoys that.”
Either way, Tarverdyan said he was unconcerned with Schaub’s comments and he would prefer to just focus on the athletes he’s working with.
“I have fighters in the gym,” Tarverdyan said. “I’m less worried about what he thinks. I’ve got champions in the gym. I’ve been doing this since I was 16 years old and I’ve had my own gym and I’ve been successful with what I’ve been doing.”