The MMA world is in disarray following Ronda Rousey’s 48-second TKO loss to Amanda Nunes (highlights here) in the main event of (Fri., December 30, 2017) UFC 207 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, her second straight stoppage loss. Immediately after the fight, many speculated we had seen the last of Rousey inside the Octagon
The MMA world is in disarray following Ronda Rousey’s 48-second TKO loss to Amanda Nunes (highlights here) in the main event of (Fri., December 30, 2017) UFC 207 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, her second straight stoppage loss.
Immediately after the fight, many speculated we had seen the last of Rousey inside the Octagon and many more – including Nunes – suggested she should outright retire.
Most believe Rousey’s recent failures can be mostly attributed to her longtime coach Edmond Tarverdyan, who took an Olympic medalist judoka and tried to make her into a boxer facing the most dangerous female strikers in the world. Tarverdyan has been raked over the coals by nearly everyone, most notably by Rousey’s own mother. ‘Rowdy’ seemed to have fallen in love with her hands when she knocked out Bethe Correia to rousing applause at 2015’s UFC 190, but the tables have clearly turned and it’s tough to decipher if her problems could even be fixed.
However, Rousey’s talent didn’t just disappear, and while she’s got nothing left to prove, the ultra-competitive grappler most likely want to go out like she has after the dust settles. If she does ultimately decide to fighting, there’s little doubt she has to dump Tarverdyan and reinvent herself at a new camp, where she could have a possibility at success. She may just be done fighting, however.
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey likely saw her last career fight at UFC 207. Coming back after more than a year away took guts, let alone when you consider the rampant champion Amanda Nunes was Rousey’s return bout. Keeping the fight standing, Nunes made quick work of ‘Rowdy,’ winning in just 48 seconds
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey likely saw her last career fight at UFC 207. Coming back after more than a year away took guts, let alone when you consider the rampant champion Amanda Nunes was Rousey’s return bout. Keeping the fight standing, Nunes made quick work of ‘Rowdy,’ winning in just 48 seconds by TKO. When all is said and done, retirement is highly probable at this stage, although nothing has been confirmed yet.
Such a crushing defeat is hard enough, but Rousey again will face the backlash of the internet. Although she’s probably more prepared this time, it’s well documented that she feels the media ‘turned on her’ after UFC 193. Speaking after last night’s main event, Rousey’s Mom Ann Maria De Mars released the following statement to her blog:
Mandatory credit: Mark J. Rebilas USA Today Sports
I have this to say about my daughter, Ronda
Like every mother and daughter on the face of the earth, Ronda and I don’t always see eye to eye. However, there is one situation where I am pretty certain.
All of those who have criticized Ronda for taking a loss so to heart, for not just ‘shrugging it off’ don’t understand that what made Ronda so successful is that she cares DEEPLY about winning to an extent that I don’t believe the average person can wrap his/her head around.
Caring deeply about something and working your hardest to achieve it doesn’t mean you make the right decisions 100% of the time. Wouldn’t it be a nicer world if it did?
Those of you who want to criticize Ronda, I just want to point out a few things. First of all, I know her better than you and she is a smart, kind, talented, generous, hard-working person.
Second, I’d like to list some of her accomplishments, and note that she isn’t yet 30 years old:
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas of USA Today Sports
Continued…
Junior World Judo Champion
Panamerican Games Judo Gold Medalist
First American woman in a decade to win a world cup in judo (and then she went on to win several more)
U.S. Open Gold Medalist
World Judo Championships Silver Medalist
Olympic Bronze Medalist
U.S. Senior National Champion
First UFC World Champion
First woman to make a million dollars in martial arts
Co-authored sports book of the year – My Fight/ Your Fight
Acted in three movies
That’s just a partial list, but let me suggest that someone who has been world level athlete in two sports, written a best seller, acted in movies and made millions of dollars, all before the age of 30 has a pretty darn good track record. On top of that, Ronda has been part of the USADA drug testing since she was 16 years old, never failed a drug test, always paid her taxes, never been arrested, never been to rehab, has zero divorces, zero DUIs and zero children. While you might think that is to be expected, look how many celebrities (heck, look how many of your neighbors) can say that.
I am very proud of my daughter.
As my other wonderful daughter, Maria, told her:
“We love you just as much 10 minutes after every fight as we did in the 10 minutes before.”
In light of his recent scuffle with heavyweight veteran Fabricio Werdum, now is the perfect time to address the ever-evolving question “Why is Edmond Tarverdyan the worst-for-your-career coach in all of MMA?” Well, there’s the fact that he marched his most talented fighter straight into the awaiting counter-strike storm of Holly Holm. Or that he
In light of his recent scuffle with heavyweight veteran Fabricio Werdum, now is the perfect time to address the ever-evolving question “Why is Edmond Tarverdyan the worst-for-your-career coach in all of MMA?”
Well, there’s the fact that he marched his most talented fighter straight into the awaiting counter-strike storm of Holly Holm. Or that he took a 7-2-1 heavyweight Travis Browne from contending at the top of the division to a 2-3 record in his last 5 bouts.
Aside from his in ring question marks, however, a huge reason Tarverdyan’s style is a distraction and burden to his fighters is his insatiable urge for and undeniable knack for finding himself in the headlines under less-than-desirable circumstances.
Thanks to the magnitude of Ronda Rousey’s superstardom, Tarverdyan has repeatedly found ways to redirect his fighter’s spotlight and take center stage at the forefront of attention. Obviously this is a big detriment that requires the utmost focus from it’s athletes.
Let’s take a look at the top five instances that seal Edmond’s title as the worst trainer in the UFC:
1) Edmond Tarverdyan (If That’s His Real Name) Gets Suspended & Placed On Probation For ID Theft:
On April 2, 2015, Tarverdyan responded “No” on his Corner’s License application for the California State Athletic Commission in answer to a question regarding the existence of any past criminal offenses. As it turns out, however, back in 2010, Tarverdyan was picked up on two felony counts of identity theft and one count of resisting arrest.
After he was detained, Tarverdyan was found to be in possession of multiple credit cards, pin numbers, and social security numbers. When this was discovered, he was temporarily suspended and placed on a three-year probationary period.
(“Good…goooood….let the hate flow through you.” via Getty)
At the risk of incurring her wrath myself, I will say that I’ve always found AnnMaria De Mars’ relationship with the MMA media, her daughter, and her daughter’s opponents to be a little…strange. I’m not saying she craves the attention, necessarily, but she certainly doesn’t seem to deflect it. She’s intense, is I guess the best way to put it.
Regardless, it would appear that De Mars maintains a closer eye on her cub than most parents would, especially when said cub is a 28-year-old uber badass and one of the most popular feminist icons on the planet. In fact, the only person in Rousey’s life who you could argue might have more say in her decision making process than her mother is Edmond Tarverdyan, Ronda’s longtime coach and another person who I personally find to be a bit grating.
So when Mama Rousey was recently asked to give her opinion on Tarverdyan, you would probably expect there to be a little bit of tension between them, to put it simply. What you probably wouldn’t expect is for De Mars to unleash the mother of all rants (no pun intended) on the Glendale Fighting Club owner, questioning everything from his abilities as a coach to the quality of his character.
(“Good…goooood….let the hate flow through you.” via Getty)
At the risk of incurring her wrath myself, I will say that I’ve always found AnnMaria De Mars’ relationship with the MMA media, her daughter, and her daughter’s opponents to be a little…strange. I’m not saying she craves the attention, necessarily, but she certainly doesn’t seem to deflect it. She’s intense, is I guess the best way to put it.
Regardless, it would appear that De Mars maintains a closer eye on her cub than most parents would, especially when said cub is a 28-year-old uber badass and one of the most popular feminist icons on the planet. In fact, the only person in Rousey’s life who you could argue might have more say in her decision making process than her mother is Edmond Tarverdyan, Ronda’s longtime coach and another person who I personally find to be a bit grating.
So when Mama Rousey was recently asked to give her opinion on Tarverdyan, you would probably expect there to be a little bit of tension between them, to put it simply. What you probably wouldn’t expect is for De Mars to unleash the mother of all rants (no pun intended) on the Glendale Fighting Club owner, questioning everything from his abilities as a coach to the quality of his character.
Video after the jump.
“I think Edmond is a terrible coach,” she began. “And I will say it publicly. I think he’s a terrible coach, and I think he hit the lottery when Ronda walked in there.
“She was winning before she ever met him. She won 99% of the Judo matches she ever fought in. She had won the Junior Worlds when she was 17. She won a bronze medal in the Olympics. She won a silver medal in the world championship. She was one of the top athletes in the world, when she walked in there.
“And he wouldn’t even give her the time of day for months. Somebody like that is a terrible coach. And I think she stays there because it like somebody pitches a no hitter when they’re wearing red underwear, so they wear that underwear for every day. And I think it’s superstition, and I would caution everyone from going there.”
“And I think it’s bad that he uses her to lure other people in. And the reason I tell everyone – I told Ronda I’m not going to be quiet about it – he’s a bad person, and people should not go there. And if he wants to sue me, that’s an honest opinion.”
(*ahem*) Excuse me for a second….
That. Was. Nasty.
While it’s pretty evident that Rousey’s striking has improved leaps and bounds in her time under Tarverdyan, you could just as easily argue that Ronda owes most of her success to what she learned prior to joining GFC. Rousey is a once in a lifetime athlete who was already light years beyond her competition from the moment she first put on 4 oz gloves, and she would be where she is today in terms of skills, if not even more advanced, had she decided to train with a Jackson’s MMA or Tristar or so forth. At least, that’s what I think her mom is getting at.
That Rousey appears to be Tarverdyan’s only pupil to achieve outright success under his tutelage certainly doesn’t hurt De Mars’ argument. Travis Browne has gone just 1-1 since joining GFC, suffering a shocking loss to Andrei Arlovski in his most recent appearance. Marina Shafir — a former Judo player with skills reminiscent of a young Rousey — has been KO’d in 37 seconds in her last two fights. The rest of the fighters listed on Glendale’s Sherdog page are either amateurs with an 0-1 record, professionals with a losing record, or unheralded (but up-and-coming) talent.
As someone who used to routinely wake Ronda up with armbars and abandon her at all-male judo tournaments and call it “training,” I think De Mars should be able to tell the difference between a good coach and a bad one, but what say you, Nation?
Being a woman in combat sports presents unique challenges when it comes to audience perception. For Ronda Rousey, the fairy tale-esque origin story of her being an American Olympian with tragedy in her childhood catapulted her into the spotlight as a mainstream media darling. But as quickly as she was built up as the newest UFC star, her coaching position on The Ultimate Fighter has torn her down from the pedestal of adulation.
This all raises the question — who is the real Ronda Rousey? Is she a spoiled brat who overruns boundaries because she feels entitled to preferential treatment? Or was she manipulated into losing her cool on the Ultimate Fighter set, with the results being slickly edited to paint her in the worst light possible?
CagePotato’s Elias Cepeda attributed Ronda’s athletic success to her crazy attitude, writing “Ronda Rousey hasn’t met anyone meaner or madder and that’s a big reason why she’s the champ.” However, the truth can’t be so simple when nice guys like Lennox Lewis and Georges St-Pierre have utterly dominated their competition throughout their respective eras.
Doing media in the lead-up to her rematch with Miesha Tate at UFC 168, Rousey was in fine form recently, riffing lines to FightHubTV that could be penned by whoever writes Chael Sonnen’s politically incorrect jokes.
Talking to AnnMaria De Mars, Ronda’s mother, I thought I’d uncover some hidden clues to unlocking or understanding Ronda’s personality. The idiom of the apple not falling far from the tree has been used to compare the 1984 world judo champion to her daughter who placed second at the 2007 world championships and earned a bronze at the 2008 Olympic games.
“People are sometimes offended by Ronda because she does not fit how they think she should act,” wrote AnnMaria on her blog about Ronda’s stint on TUF. “At Ronda’s age, given the same degree of provocation, I would have punched out a few people, hit someone with a chair, told everyone to fuck off and walked out.”
(TUF has made the public hate Ronda Rousey. But she is who she is. / Photo via Getty)
Being a woman in combat sports presents unique challenges when it comes to audience perception. For Ronda Rousey, the fairy tale-esque origin story of her being an American Olympian with tragedy in her childhood catapulted her into the spotlight as a mainstream media darling. But as quickly as she was built up as the newest UFC star, her coaching position on The Ultimate Fighter has torn her down from the pedestal of adulation.
This all raises the question — who is the real Ronda Rousey? Is she a spoiled brat who overruns boundaries because she feels entitled to preferential treatment? Or was she manipulated into losing her cool on the Ultimate Fighter set, with the results being slickly edited to paint her in the worst light possible?
CagePotato’s Elias Cepeda attributed Ronda’s athletic success to her crazy attitude, writing “Ronda Rousey hasn’t met anyone meaner or madder and that’s a big reason why she’s the champ.” However, the truth can’t be so simple when nice guys like Lennox Lewis and Georges St-Pierre have utterly dominated their competition throughout their respective eras.
Doing media in the lead-up to her rematch with Miesha Tate at UFC 168, Rousey was in fine form recently, riffing lines to FightHubTV that could be penned by whoever writes Chael Sonnen’s politically incorrect jokes.
Talking to AnnMaria De Mars, Ronda’s mother, I thought I’d uncover some hidden clues to unlocking or understanding Ronda’s personality. The idiom of the apple not falling far from the tree has been used to compare the 1984 world judo champion to her daughter who placed second at the 2007 world championships and earned a bronze at the 2008 Olympic games.
“People are sometimes offended by Ronda because she does not fit how they think she should act,” wrote AnnMaria on her blog about Ronda’s stint on TUF. “At Ronda’s age, given the same degree of provocation, I would have punched out a few people, hit someone with a chair, told everyone to fuck off and walked out.”
Far from the out-of-control attitude one might perceive from her writing, AnnMaria De Mars comes across as a sensitive, polite and hyper-intelligent woman. She’s an overachiever across the board who has earned a PhD, runs a group of technology companies and co-authored a book (Winning On the Ground). If she has a flaw that’s rubbed off onto Ronda, it’s her hypercompetitive attitude and an overbearing sense of right and wrong that splintered Ronda into a rebellious spirit.
In a blog that appeared on The Telegraph, Ronda recalled breaking three bones in her foot jumping a 12-foot fence while cutting class at the age of 15. AnnMaria was out of town at the time, but she sent her daughter to Northern California to compete in a fierce rival’s tournament without a coach.
“You hurt yourself skipping class, you don’t get any sympathy from me,” says AnnMaria, who learned of the extent of her daughter’s injuries after the fact.
The pressure from AnnMaria might have made Ronda angry at the time, but in the long run, AnnMaria rationalized that it made her a stronger competitor because it would help her deal with the hostile environments that athletes so often find themselves in on the international judo circuit.
“I see so many people in life who are held back because they don’t believe they can do something,” says AnnMaria. “You learn not to give yourself excuses.”
There’s still no telling what kind of emotional impact AnnMaria’s authoritative parenting style had on Ronda. Demanding oneself to do things better and better with each successive attempt has a way of cultivating insecurities side-by-side with confidence.
There are only superficial parallels to sports dads who pushed their sons too hard, like Marv Marinovich and his troubled son Todd Marinovich or Roy Jones Sr. and his ultra-talented son Roy Jones Jr. In those two cases, Marv and Roy Sr. expected their sons to fulfill what they couldn’t by making it to the big time of the NFL and professional boxing, respectively.
“I was against judo, I was against MMA, so I’m batting zero on this,” says AnnMaria.
After the Olympics, Ronda had a free ride to attend any of the top 500 private universities in the US thanks to her mother’s job at the University of Southern California. Her decision to make a foray into professional fighting had her mother scratching her head, to say the least.
“I told her ‘That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. There’s no money in it.’”
Ronda proved her mother wrong, first by winning the Strikeforce bantamweight title and then by becoming the first women’s champion in the UFC. Beyond her skills in the Octagon, Ronda has an even more impressive record of giving back to the community: giving judo clinics for charity, being an advocate of a positive body image for women, and even helping facilitate the donation of rice for the World Food Program.
Ronda’s flaw is purely a matter of perception — she’s easily disturbed and oversells what the audience needs to judge for themselves. Maybe Miesha Tate isn’t a great coach. Maybe Ronda’s team needed her to console them in defeat backstage instead of her giving an interview after the TUF 18 finale. But in MMA, fans want to see an athlete who seems grateful to appear before them, like when Georges St-Pierre got down on his knees to beg for a title shot after beating Sean Sherk at UFC 56.
Georges St-Pierre had an excellent mental game that he never got enough credit for throughout his storied career. No matter how hard BJ Penn pushed him before their rematch at UFC 94 — even going so far as saying he would kill St-Pierre — GSP was unperturbed, and responded by saying that he liked BJ Penn.
“He can say whatever he wants. A lot of people can talk – it’s easy to talk, but it’s harder to walk the walk,” St-Pierre told me.
After all, the two truest things in combat sports are that everyone loves a winner and a fighter is only as good as their last performance. On December 28th, Ronda doesn’t have to concern herself with the opinions of fans, pundits or fellow-fighters. She only has to drag Miesha Tate into deep waters and slap on her signature armbar in order to exorcise the ghosts of her Ultimate Fighter experience.
While we can say anything we want about Ronda Rousey as a person, her wins will define everything that we can say about her career as a fighter.
