Ronda Rousey has booked herself a fight and suddenly, UFC hype man Joe Rogan has some complimentary things to say about her stand-up skills.
It’s undeniable that former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is a freak athlete. When a fighter racks up eight-straight submission finishes and goes 12-0 as a pro, it’s very unlikely that they’re not exceptional at their craft.
However, the one criticism that has plagued Rousey throughout her career is that she is lacking in the striking department. The man who shoulders most of the blame for this aspect of Rousey’s game not developing to a higher standard is her coach Edmond Tarverdyan.
The boxing specialist is one of the most unpopular coaches in MMA right now. Whether it’s his massively unhelpful cornering instructions, his deluded opinion on Ronda Rousey’s solitary loss or that time he confronted former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum inside the Octagon, people will always find something to hate about him.
It’s even reached the stage where MMA mastermind Mark Henry has resorted to using his very name as an insult. An impressive feat considering the New Jersey native is widely considered to be one of the nicest guys in the game. Tarverdyan seemingly just has that affect on people.
Watching #SNL and it looks like @rondarousey still needs help on her standup
— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) January 24, 2016
However, there is at least one man on planet Earth who doesn’t believe that Tarverdyan is a laughing stock and that’s UFC colour commentator Joe Rogan. During a recent episode of his podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ he went as far to say that Rousey’s striking has improved exponentially under his tutelage.
“Whether or not that guy Edmond has had success with some of his students, you can’t deny that he has worked wonders with her hands. Her striking ability… when she was warming up for that Bethe Correia fight, and they were Brazil on sand doing those pad drills together, she looked fantastic. You look at her when she first started striking and you look at her now, a big percentage of that is those two working together.”
And he didn’t stop there with the Edmond love.
“There’s no denying there’s some merit to what he does, unquestionably. You’d have to examine the whole camp like a scientist. You have a world class, world championship-level race horse in Ronda Rousey. You have to ask yourself, what is the best course of this thing? You have to address technical issues, you’ve got to address comfort, nutrition, all these things.”
One point that often gets brought up when debating Rousey’s striking ability is whether or not she’s sparring with the right partners or not. However, Rogan argues that each fighter is different and some see drilling as a more beneficial training technique than doing rounds of sparring.
“Technically, what are we trying to achieve? Victory, right? What is her best options? Is she training with the best king of sparring partners? The thing is, you don’t fucking know! One person can do it one way and be super successful and be super successful then everybody says, ‘That’s the way you do it.’ You don’t spar and you only do drills – that’s what Donald Cerrone has been doing.”
“Or you can go the Eddie Alvarez route. Eddie Alvarez sparred like 150 rounds sparring preparing for Rafael dos Anjos. He just said, ‘We’re going fuckin’ crazy. We’re going to go old school – crazy. We’re going go in there and brawl and be completely prepared to fight.”
If Rousey’s striking has come on as much as Rogan thinks it has, there’s no better test than arguably the hardest hitter in the entire division, Amanda Nunes. You can check out the Brazilian’s first defence against Rousey in UFC 207’s main event going down on December 30.
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