“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 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.”
-Tim Kennedy rips Edmond Tarverdyan’s coaching of Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 in an appearance on 1300 The Zone (via MMAFighting.com).
Penick’s Analysis: It’s piling on a bit, but it’s worth saying. It holds more weight coming from a fighter, as well, and Kennedy’s far from the only one ripping Tarverdyan. We unfortunately see it a lot in this sport, where corners either fail to give any meaningful advice to their fighter, or willfully mislead them as to what’s happening in the fight, which leads to poorer choices in the cage. Tarverdyan didn’t help Rousey by telling her she was doing “beautiful” in that first round when she was getting torn apart, and there was nothing in the way of insight into how she might adjust into the second round. It was somewhat of a condemnation of the two of them as a team, and criticism like this is warranted.
[Photo (c) Jason da Silva via USA Today Sports]
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