There have been a lot of harsh words lately directed at Ronda Rousey’s coach Edmond Tarverdyan.
“I hate him. I would run over him with my car in there wasn’t a law against it,” said Ronda’s mom recently. “I HATE that guy. He’s like the most worthless human being God ever put on this Earth.”
UFC middleweight Tim Kenny recently appeared on Boston’sFight Night on 1300 The Zone, and eclipsed Dr. De Mars in the coach-blasting games.
Abraham Maslow famously said “if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” When Ronda Rousey came back to the corner after the first round vs. Holly Holm, her coach appeared to be short some tools. He told her she was doing great, and to box, without specificity.
Tim Kennedy was not impressed.
“I hate that guy,” began Kennedy, as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAFighting. “I think he’s a jerk. I also think he’s a terrorist sympathizer.”
“There was coaching and then there was whatever happened with Ronda. I don’t want to diminish that word and call it coaching because that’s not what happened in Ronda’s corner.”
“You definitely have to adjust what you’re telling your fighter depending who they are. You have to know who they are. None of us know Ronda well enough to second guess what her coach was doing. Maybe he was doing the right thing? Maybe he was giving her the confidence she needed? Maybe she’s someone who needs to operate in confidence? That’s just ludicrous, to me, though.”
“Ronda had the brakes beaten off her for four and a half minutes. Her face is bloody, her nose and lip are bleeding and then you have her coach saying, ‘Hey, do the same thing?’ Not even like, ‘Stick to the game plan. Change levels. Cut an angle and shoot a double leg. Push her up against the fence.’ Anything! ‘Keep getting punched more.’
“I think she’s amazing. I think her skills are spectacular. I think she is an Olympian. I think her jiu jitsu is sick. I think she’s done things in the Octagon that no one else has ever done. Going through No. 1 contenders the way she did has never been done. Anderson Silva would be a close second to her in the showcase of skill sets you can pack into 30 seconds.
“I think Ronda is one of those people like Jon Jones, like Holly. People who are just God’s gift to pugilism. You put her with the right coaches, with the right training partners, her potential is limitless. You put her with the guys she’s been training with? You get what you got.”
“I don’t see somebody beating Holly for a while. Until Holly says she’s done. As I look through the roster of the ‘Cris Cyborg’s’, who Holly would pick apart. That fight would be fun to watch because you’d finally get to see Holly demonstrate how good her boxing and kickboxing is against someone who thinks they’re good. Holly would destroy Cyborg.”
