Tag: ronda rousey vs amanda nunes

Cris Cyborg Reacts To Edmond Tarverdyan’s Callout

Yesterday, Ronda Rousey’s longtime head coach Edmond Tarverdyan slithered his way back into the headlines by calling out UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino for his pupil. Rousey was famously involved in a heated back-and-forth with Cyborg during her time as a dominant UFC women’s bantamweight champion, when a bout between the two seemingly […]

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Yesterday, Ronda Rousey’s longtime head coach Edmond Tarverdyan slithered his way back into the headlines by calling out UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino for his pupil.

Rousey was famously involved in a heated back-and-forth with Cyborg during her time as a dominant UFC women’s bantamweight champion, when a bout between the two seemingly unstoppable forces was one of the hottest topics in MMA.

But with Rousey having lost her last two fights by one-sided knockout, the shine has worn off the fight, and with Rousey currently headed for a WWE career, it’s highly doubtful that she ever returns to the cage. That didn’t stop Tarverdyan, who has been embroiled in a highly-publicized bankruptcy case, from stirring up old beef and calling out Cyborg himself during The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani yesterday:

“That’s the one,” Tarverdyan said. “I want that fight. When I trained Ronda, I know Ronda could beat Cyborg. I know that. Cyborg is too slow.”

Today, Cyborg responded to the callout to MMA Fighting, offering the belief everyone already knows – that Rousey has long been checked out of MMA and would offer little resistance to the true top women’s fighter in MMA. With that said, however, Cyborg did offer to face Rousey in WWE, a place where she believes her ‘joke’ of a coach Tarverdyan would fit in well:

“If Ronda wants to come back for a fight,” Cyborg said, “I believe it’s better for her to fight Miesha Tate. I’m in another stage of my career. I wanted to fight Ronda when she was psychologically well and confident.

“Now, if she wants to make a good fight for the fans, we can make it at WWE,” she said. “It would fit perfectly [for her] to go to Hollywood, and for me would be another challenge in my career.

“And something brilliant, her coach would fit perfectly in her corner in WWE, he’s nothing but a joke.”

It’s hard to argue with Cyborg’s response, as the many fight fans who have witnessed Rousey look absolutely lost in the stand-up game versus Holm and Nunes can plainly see things most likely wouldn’t go any better versus by far the most powerful knockout artist the female side of the sport has ever seen.

Rousey’s unlikely to return to the octagon at any point, and Tarverdyan calling out the best fighter after two brutal knockout losses which many attributed to him only looks like what most have already called it – a money grab.

Would Rousey have any shot at returning to MMA if she ditched Tarverdyan?

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Edmond Tarverdyan Thinks Ronda Rousey Could Still Beat Cyborg

Ronda Rousey has largely chosen to stay out of the limelight following her knockout loss to Amanda Nunes in her long-awaited return at last December’s UFC 207. She even went as far as to have her wedding to UFC heavyweight Travis Browne on August 26, the same day as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor. While […]

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Ronda Rousey has largely chosen to stay out of the limelight following her knockout loss to Amanda Nunes in her long-awaited return at last December’s UFC 207.

She even went as far as to have her wedding to UFC heavyweight Travis Browne on August 26, the same day as Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor. While she has appeared at WWE events that will reportedly lead to her pro-wrestling debut, it’s a strategy she’s implemented ever since her first knockout loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193 almost two years back.

Few believe she will ever come back to fighting, and that’s kept the criticism of her oft-blasted head coach Edmond Tarverdyan to a minimum. That is, until today, when Tarverdyan appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to fire back at his critics before voicing his desire for Rousey to come back for one more fight. Not surprisingly, it was her oft-rumored but never capitalized-upon match with current UFC women’s featherweight champion Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino:

“That’s the one,” Tarverdyan said. “I want that fight. When I trained Ronda, I know Ronda could beat Cyborg. I know that. Cyborg is too slow.”

Tough words from Tarverdyan considering Cyborg is unbeaten since her first MMA fight in May 2005 and has cut a swath through every opponent she has faced since outside of one no contest. Rousey also doesn’t appear motivated to fight the best females in MMA anymore, but Tarverdyan insisted that ‘Rowdy’ would be motivated by Cyborg’s prior use of steroids:

“I don’t know. I don’t know. We’ll live and we’ll see. If injuries weren’t there and everything was where it was, we would take that fight and I’m telling you she’s too slow for us. And Ronda will beat her. Ronda needs a challenge that she really needs to be like this person is no good and I need to prove something to the whole world. That’s how Ronda works good.

“And she didn’t have that with Holly, she’s the one that pushed and wanted some aggressiveness before the weigh-ins. This one she has it. She said she cheated before, she’s hurt women and she wants to come and beat her.”

With that said, Tarverdyan also believes Rousey is now in a good place mentally thinks to her marriage to Browne, and that would also propel her to a victory over Cyborg:

“That’s why if she wants to make a comeback and get one fight, I think she will do the best she’s ever done and I think she’ll be victorious. Because I know Ronda’s personality, because she’s happy right now and she has a good challenge in front of her that she focuses on. I think whatever she wants to do right now, she can do. It’s in her mind.”

Many have billed Tarverdyan as a sort of snake oil salesman who took Rousy away from her world-class judo background so he could trick her into thinking she was an elite striker, something that proved painfully true when she faced true great strikes like Nunes and Holm.

Would Rousey really have any chance at Cyborg if her mind was right, or is Tarverdyan just getting his name back in the media in hopes of one last major payday?

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Ronda Rousey Posts New Photos Of Wedding Day

Ronda Rousey may be out of fighting for the time being and perhaps ever, but she appears to be doing fine without it. Yesterday, some photos of the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion’s marriage to Travis Browne surfaced online from ‘Hapa’ and her personal photographer. However, today some news photos have arrived from “Rowdy” herself, […]

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Ronda Rousey may be out of fighting for the time being and perhaps ever, but she appears to be doing fine without it.

Yesterday, some photos of the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion’s marriage to Travis Browne surfaced online from ‘Hapa’ and her personal photographer.

However, today some news photos have arrived from “Rowdy” herself, who posted several images of her big day on her official Instagram page. Check them out here:

Happiest day of my life….

A post shared by rondarousey (@rondarousey) on

The Love of my life

A post shared by rondarousey (@rondarousey) on

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Pic: Check Out One Of Few Photos From Ronda Rousey’s Wedding

While the entire gaze of the combat sports world was fixated on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor spectacle from Las Vegas last Saturday night, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was quietly getting married to UFC heavyweight Travis Browne. The ceremony certainly may have been booked on that date for a reason, as Rousey […]

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While the entire gaze of the combat sports world was fixated on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor spectacle from Las Vegas last Saturday night, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was quietly getting married to UFC heavyweight Travis Browne.

The ceremony certainly may have been booked on that date for a reason, as Rousey has clearly withdrawn from the constant media machine that she believed betrayed her in the days following her shocking upset loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193. That lead to a self-imposed media ban before her return at last December’s UFC 207, where she lost a brutal 48-second fight to current champion Amanda Nunes.

So it’s little surprise that Rousey wanted hardly any attention on her wedding ceremony to Glendale Fighting Club teammate Browne, and that’s lead to precious few photos being released from the event. One did surface from personal photographer Layzie The Savage on Instagram, however, depicting him with Rousey in her dress. Check it out here:

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Ronda Rousey Appears At Recent WWE Tapings

It looks like Ronda Rousey could potentially be returning to the ring, although not for a MMA fight. According to a report from Dave Meltzer of MMA Fighting, Rousey appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) tapings at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, last Thursday and Friday to support her longtime friend and training partner, […]

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It looks like Ronda Rousey could potentially be returning to the ring, although not for a MMA fight.

According to a report from Dave Meltzer of MMA Fighting, Rousey appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) tapings at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, last Thursday and Friday to support her longtime friend and training partner, former UFC bantamweight Shayna Baszler.

Things started out calm enough in Thursday evening according to the report, as Baszler won her opening-round match in the Mae Young Classic, a 32-woman tournament. But from that point, the fostering of a feud began, as Rousey sat ringside with Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, the other two members of “Rowdy” and Baszler’s oft-publicized “Four Horsewomen” group.

Of course, the group name stems from the ultra-popular “Four Horsemen” stable of the 1980s consisting of legendary champion Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and several other members. Rousey and her stablemates used their version, but apparently never trademarked it, as WWE soon marketed a stable of women wrestlers including Flair’s daughter Charlotte Flair, whose real name is Ashley Fliehr, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Becky Lynch as their own version of the “Four Horsewomen.”

So although Rousey and her “Four Horsewomen” group’s role was unclear, it became clear after Baszler won her second-round tournament match over Mia Kim with a MMA-inspired choke and flaunted a four-finger “Four Horsewomen” taunt directed at Flair, Lynch, and Bayley (Banks was in Australia working on a promotional tour for WWE). Both groups of women got into a bit of a smack-talking match, although it remains to be seen just how far this angle will proceed.

Meltzer said a WWE official called it, “foreshadowing in essence, just in case.”

The bit will reportedly not air until this September, but Rousey’s love of and history with pro-wrestling has been well documented. During the height of her popularity, she appeared alongside mega-famous actor and former WWE champion Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to mix it up with WWE executives and personalities Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at 2015’s WrestleMania, and the WWE has made no effort to hide their infatuation with Rousey, who herself is a longtime professional wrestling fanatic.

The Vince McMahon-owned pro-wrestling juggernaut reportedly wanted Rousey to wrestle Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania in 2016, something that never came to fruition after she lost her long-held UFC title in a shocking knockout loss to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November 2015. Now that Rousey appears to be done with the UFC for the time being, an opportunity for her to appear in her beloved pro-wrestling, where she would engage in scripted physical activity rather than get punched by the most dangerous 135-pound female fighters on the planet, could be an obvious choice for her next career move post-UFC.

Baszler has been involved with pro-wrestling for quite some time, having trained with several of the WWE’s female wrestlers during the time following her retirement from MMA, and has supposedly been seeking employment with the WWE for quite some time. She was also trained in both pro-wrestling in addition to catch wrestling by former UFC champion Josh Barnett.

Although it was thought that she had not been signed to the promotion, Baszler has now been booked to be one of the performers at the forefront of the Mae Young Classic, where she will wrestle Japan’s Kaire Sane in the finals on September 12, a date during which the storyline involving Rousey is expected to continue.

So nothing is set, but it appears Rousey’s next trip to a ring could potentially be in the WWE. Do you like that direction for her career, or would it better to give MMA and the UFC one last shot?

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Ronda Rousey Breaks Silence With An Extremely Strange Story

Ronda Rousey appeared in her first public interview since her TKO loss to Amanda Nunes in the main event of last December’s UFC 207, but it wasn’t to talk about anything related to her up-in-the-air UFC future. Instead, Rousey discussed her new coaching role on ABC’s ‘Battle of the Network Stars’ on ‘Live With Kelly […]

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Ronda Rousey appeared in her first public interview since her TKO loss to Amanda Nunes in the main event of last December’s UFC 207, but it wasn’t to talk about anything related to her up-in-the-air UFC future.

Instead, Rousey discussed her new coaching role on ABC’s ‘Battle of the Network Stars’ on ‘Live With Kelly and Ryan’ this morning (Wed., July 5, 2017), and talk then shifted to her engagement to UFC heavyweight Travis Browne before taking a turn for the strange.

Apparently, some thugs broke into Rousey’s home while she and Browne were on vacation in New Zealand, which is where ‘Hapa’ popped the question. And the vandals got away with quite the haul, even if it didn’t end well for them (quotes transcribed by MMA Weekly):

We stopped by the house right before we were going to go to the airport and he was going to sneak away and go ask my mom for permission but right when we got to the house, we realized we were robbed. Someone had been squatting in my house for like three days, sleeping in my bed.

“[They] stole my Olympic rings, stole my guns, stole all my precious jewelry, every headphone in the house, credit cards.”

Rousey explained that her security cameras caught the criminals with shocking ease, as the not-so-smart robbers were skaters who frequented a nearby skate park in their home base of Venice, Calif. With the cam footage aiding him, Rousey revealed how quickly Browne tracked them down, being ever-so-careful to not physically assault the criminals:

“We have security cameras so we looked back at them and we saw that they were a bunch of kids with skateboards and there’s a famous skate park right across the street cause we’re in Venice. So my man’s 6’7” like 260 [pounds], he like beelines it straight to the skateboard park, finds the guys right away.

“He’s smart enough not to [hit them], we’ll get sued pretty hard, but he found the police right then and they caught them.”

But even though the situation ended up as well as it could have for the embattled former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, it still understandably doesn’t sit well with the onetime queen of MMA. She thinks the robbers knew it was her house for sure, something that is probably the case after she was previously tagged with graffiti shortly after her latest defeat earlier this year:

“They knew it was my house,” Rousey said. “There’s no way you can’t not know it’s my house. What little punks.”

So Rousey was able to find some just desserts for the squatters who robbed her of her valued possessions, and is now set to resume her career in the limelight on major network television. Add that to her engagement to Browne and her life is obviously full even without any discussion of the sport she ruled with an iron fist.

The legions of fans who once thought she could defeat many of the male bantamweights fighting in the UFC would most likely like an explanation of where, if anywhere, her fighting career is headed, but judging solely on what she chose to talk about in her first public interview since losing to Nunes, fighting isn’t at the top of her list.

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