Midnight Mania! Top MMA trainer claims Ronda Rousey’s striking not (completely) Edmond Tarverdyan’s fault

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Welcome to Midnight Mania! Firas Zahabi, the head trainer at the successful mixed martial arts (MMA) gym, Tri-Star, has come out with some surprising comments in regard to Ronda Rousey’s boxing coach, Edmond Tarverdyan (who doesn’t care what you think). You can watch the clip below:

Here’s a partial transcript, courtesy of Bloody Elbow:

“I think Ronda has got power. What Ronda doesn’t have, is fluidity, a technical speed. She doesn’t have a smooth coordination. She’s very jittery, she’s very mechanical when she punches, and she’s very wild and telegraphs very much. Her punching level is not at an expert level,” he said. “However, is that her coach’s fault? I would say no, it is not.”

However, that was not all he had to say.

“The reason why a Ben Askren or a Ronda Rousey’s striking usually — not always — doesn’t hit that high level, is because they’ve spent so much time wiring their brain and their body and their nervous system to fight in one particular way. It’s opportunity cost. Every time you do one thing, you’re costing yourself in another.”

Even though he did place the blame partly on Rousey’s natural predilection to grappling, he did admit whatever Tarverdyan is doing is not working.

“Is it Edmond’s fault? I don’t think it is. But, I think there are coaches out there that can do a much better job than what Edmond did. That I will agree with. I don’t want to be negative towards anybody, but the job that he did out there against Amanda Nunes was as bad as it can be. That’s the legitimate criticism that I cannot defend. I don’t believe he’s incompetent. I think he’s a legitimate striker. I’ve seen his fight videos, I’ve seen him standing up. He legitimately knows what he’s doing standing up. Is his stand up style good for Ronda? Is his approach to training stand up good for Ronda? I would say it’s not.”

I can’t say I agree completely with Zahabi here, (Jeff Mayweather doesn’t) but it’s a balanced take. Tarverdyan may not have been a bad striker, but his coaching, in particular his cornering, is dreadful. Not entirely sure how you can defend this, though.

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Fan Made

Mike Goldberg is feeling the love now that he has retired.

I can appreciate a man who can poke fun at himself. Anderson Silva’s Precision is Precise — that is irrefutable logic!

Here’s the Tommy Toehold video he referenced:

Who did this???

Nice artwork!

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Slips, Rips and Clips

Watch the following true story and tell me if you think that’s dirty or fair.

It’s not the fastest knockout ever:

But, it is why “No Love” doesn’t do the glove touch:

That’s MMA though: Cheating often pays off. Not always, though. Sometimes you try to throw right off the glove touch and it backfires.

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New view on that Moat Fight knockout from the other day:

Who are these fighters and when did this happen? I don’t remember this and I should.

Hipsters are out here embarrassing my city.

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‘Roos and Stick Fighting

Remember that guy who squared up to the kangaroo?

Well, the kangaroo found him.

Boxing kangaroos is actually a tradition that goes back more than 100 years. Here’s what it looks like:

Some are scarier than others:

Jacks Slack even did a breakdown on the fighting style of ‘roos.

This 1950s French documentary of the old Filipino fighting art of Arnis is really fascinating. The stick-fighting action starts in the latter half of the video.

This is what the sport looks like now:

That looks incredibly fun.

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Quick Hits

• Pennington sparred Rousey ahead of UFC 207
• Matt Serra has his opinions as to how said sparring went
• Dominick Cruz is defiant after his hard-fought UFC 207 loss to Cody Garbrandt
• In case you missed it, Khabib has apparently moved on from T-Ferg

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Random Land

I had never seen Uncle Rob’s how to videos before, but I found them extremely helpful.

Dr. Patrick Wyman is putting his history Ph.D. to good use in this new podcast:

Stay woke, Maniacs!