UFC heavyweight Travis Browne appeared recently on ESPN’s 5ive Rounds podcast and dismissed rumors that he had left Edmond Tarverdyan and switched camps from Glendale Fight Club to Blackhouse. The fighter is 2-3 since moving to Tarverdyan’s camp. Other top talent saw a decline in their record when following suit. And the most famous member of the camp, Ronda Rousey, lost the last two title fights looking ill-prepared.
Browne offered an alternate perspective.
“I think it’s easy to judge from the outside,” said Tarverdyan, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “Anybody that I’ve ever had in camp to work with me as a training partner is always like, ‘Man, Edmond knows what he’s talking about.’ He has a great fight IQ. He has good 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?
“He doesn’t care [about his reputation]. That’s the difference. He doesn’t care about looking good to everybody. He cares about being good to the people around him. Being a good coach. That’s why he doesn’t have 50 guys in his stable.
[The criticisms] are for the the wrong reasons. I understand a guy like that could be easier to dislike because he doesn’t care. I think I get the same rap sometimes. I’m disliked a lot and it’s probably for the wrong reasons.”
“He’s an emotional guy who wears his heart on his sleeve. That’s something I can appreciate about him. He loves his athletes and he shows his athletes he loves them. For me, in between rounds, what he has told me has been good and spot on.”
“He’s still my coach. He comes out quite a bit. He comes out every week to help. The only difference is it’s not in his gym. The man has a family, he has kids. It’s one of those things, to ask another man to come out for two-three months, you just can’t do that. So this camp he’s not as big a part as he has been previously but he is still part of this camp.
That’s all it was, that the location of my camp is different. When I was doing my whole camp in Los Angeles, Ricky Lundell would come out once a week, but he’s still my coach. So, it’s the same thing, we’re just doing it out here where I’m getting consistent work with the guys that I need to get done with… It’s just getting consistent work and having consistent bodies out here in Vegas, especially for the guy I’m facing. It’s just one of those things where as a team we felt it better for me to do the camp out here based on the bodies out here. So instead of flying guys in or constantly traveling to different places it’s better to go where the bodies are.
Browne fights rising contender Derrick Lewis on February 19 in the main event of UFC Fight Night 105 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The guy wanted to fight me and now he’s gonna have his chance,” said Browne. “The thing about this sport is you will be held accountable for your words come a certain date. So he called me out, and he’s gonna get the opportunity.
A win for Browne would of course butress his estimation of Tarverdyan.
