Head Movement!
It looks as though Glendale Fighting Club is still up and running. Contrary to recent reports, UFC heavyweight Travis Browne is still a member too. After the UFC 207 frenzy died down, many questions still remained about coach Edmond Tarverdyan. Firstly, the polarizing coach was again the subject of massive debate regarding his credentials. Showing no improvement in her stand up, Ronda Rousey crumbled quickly against Amanda Nunes. Just 48 seconds in to the first round and ‘Rowdy’ had taken all she could handle.
Then came the deadline for a settlement agreement to the tune of $160K. Coach Edmond’s bankruptcy/fraud case had to be sorted by last month or the gym could be sold by the pursuing party. With Dana White recently saying Rousey is pretty much done fighting, reports about ‘Hapa’ joining a different gym circulated. Apparently those reports were inaccurate, and Browne recently came to the defense of his coach. Speaking during a podcast appearance, ‘Hapa’ confirmed coach Edmond will be in his corner against Derrick Lewis in Halifax:
“Don’t Judge Edmond”
Heading in to his February 19 showdown with ‘Black Beast,’ Browne desperately needs a win. Riding a two-fight losing skid, Browne’s fortunes have been on the downswing since joining Glendale. This is not a reflection of Tarverdyan, says Browne, who believes people are singling his coach out:
“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.”
Browne Blames Himself
“Speaking for myself, I went to Edmond to work specifically on footwork and my hands. Now it was up to me, during my fights, to work on my kicks, and grappling, and stuff like that. That was just something that I, for whatever reason, wasn’t at the front of my mind. I think now after I’ve had a tough year, after a year like this, I need to sit back. I’ve developed these skills, how do I incorporate them now into like the full scope of what I’m able to do.”
“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.”
At Stake
Facing a surging heavyweight prospect in Lewis, Browne will need to be on top form. At stake is possibly his UFC contract. ‘Hapa’ vs. ‘Black Beast’ is the main event of UFC Fight Night 105, and which version of Travis Browne that shows up will prove pivotal to the result.
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