Kaufman: Rousey’s armbar ‘not unstoppable’
In preparation for the champion’s specialty, Kaufman has spent time training with mixed martial artist and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt…
In preparation for the champion’s specialty, Kaufman has spent time training with mixed martial artist and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Sheila Bird, with a focus on working out of bad situations. The hope is that the continued repetitions will ingrain in her the proper escape routes should the time come to use them during the August 18 matchup. And while no fighter has yet escaped the Rousey trap for long, Kaufman says there is nothing magical about the technique.
“I don’t think it’s unstoppable,” she said during a Wednesday media call for Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman. “It’s one technique that can be used from multiple different angles. Ronda’s clearly put a lot of work with the judo into the fast transitions, but it doesn’t make me nervous. It’s something that could happen but it’s also something I’m prepared for.
“It’s an armbar,” she continued. “People can have a mystique behind someone because they have the same submission over and over again. It does create an aura of kind of, ‘Oh, she’s won every fight by the same thing.’ And I did the same thing when I had eight knockouts in a row. You do have that mystique and someone has to break it, and that’s what I’m prepared to do.”