After losing a fight or a game, there can often be some revisionist history thrown around. Those who suffered defeat will generally look for excuses to explain why everything went the way it did.
Oddly enough, Ronda Rousey’s mother and Amanda Nunes, who defeated Rousey at UFC 207 on Friday in a shocking 48-second victory, both believe the same person is at fault for the loss.
Edmond Tarverdyan, who coaches Rousey, is a former Muay Thai boxing champion. That background is at the heart of Nunes’ criticism, which she expressed in the post-fight press conference on Friday (via MMA Weekly).
“She thinks she’s a boxer. He put this in her head and make the girl believe in that. I don’t know why he did that.”
Rousey’s mother, AnnMaria De Mars, has long been critical of Tarverdyan, going back to before Rousey’s loss to Holly Holm at UFC last November. She repeated her concerns during an interview with Submission Radio in February (via MMA Fighting).
“Ronda trained with an idiot. She trained with an idiot and a fraud. I would be shocked to find out that guy has any record at all. As far as I know, I saw him fight once and he fought somebody that had a record of like 6-20 and won on a split decision. The guy is a fraud. Ronda has a lot of talent. She came into that gym with a very strong background of training at the Olympic level and it carried her a long way.
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“She needs to get away from some egomaniac fraud and be herself. Ronda as herself can beat anybody on the planet. I’m sad about it but you become an adult and make decisions. Sometimes you make mistakes and hopefully you learn from them … I don’t claim to know everything but I know what it takes to win a world championship. I know what good coaching is. I told Ronda more than once, ‘I know what training to beat the world looks like and this isn’t it.’”
Friday’s result did little to change De Mars’ opinion, as you might expect. While talking to TMZ after the fight, she said her opinion on Tarverdyan has “not changed one bit.” Furthermore, De Mars said that she believes Rousey should retire.
Not much has changed as De Mar said after the fight when talking to TMZ, that her opinion on Tarverdyan has “not changed one bit.” It is a peculiar situation as it seems like her mother doesn’t want her to fight anymore and pursue other ventures.
Would losing Rousey impact the women’s MMA world that greatly? After two consecutive losses, she may now be more of a paper tiger than anything else. A coaching change could possibly get her back to her Judo roots and rejuvenate her career. But Rousey still is culturally relevant and could switch gears permanently into acting, a move many have speculated for her in recent years. Continuing to lose in the ring would likely affect that, however. Regardless, Rousey will keep attracting interest, even if she never steps into the octagon again.
