Amanda Nunes rips Ronda Rousey's head coach for ruining her career
LAS VEGAS — Just seconds after Amanda Nunes handed Ronda Rousey a savage 48-second TKO, she went over to the former champion's corner and put her finger to her lips in a gesture to silence her loud and boisterous head coach.
Edmond Tarverydan, who has taken a mountain of criticism for his coaching style during fights as well as for his advice between rounds, was once again the center of attention following Rousey's second straight knockout loss.
In fact, Nunes specifically taunted him after the fight when it was clear that Rousey came out of the gate looking to strike with the women's bantamweight champion and it backfired in a hurry.
"Yeah because she thinks she's a boxer. He like put this in her head and make the girl believe in that," Nunes told FOX Sports about Tarverdyan at the UFC 207 post fight press conference. "I don't know why he did that. She has great judo and then she can go more forward in this division but he put some crazy thing about her boxing and then her career started like going down.
"That's why I went in there and I'm the real striker here. This is the only thing I want to look at him to say."
On Friday night, Tarverdyan was particularly animated during the short fight that ended with Rousey suffering her second straight loss in the UFC.
Below is the transcription of Tarverdyan's advice to Rousey after the referee started the fight with Nunes:
[pullquote align="center" attribution="— Edmond Tarverdyan in Ronda Rousey's corner"]"Make her miss, miss, miss! She’ll fade. Be patient! Pick your moments! Head movement! Head movement! Head movement! Head movement! Head movement! Head movement! Head movement! Yes, move! Hands up! Hands up! Hands up! Catch her! Please! Head Movement, good jab! Jab! Move, move! Move, please! Move, move, move, clinch, clinch, clinch! CLINCH! CLINCH! CLINCH! CLINCH! No! NO! NO! NO! NO! Move out! Move (expletive)!"[/pullquote]
Whether Tarverdyan deserves the blame or not, Nunes certainly heaped on the criticism after she bludgeoned Rousey with 27 significant strikes in just 48 seconds before the fight was stopped.
For her part, Rousey countered with only seven strikes before she was TKO'd in the opening round.
Through the first 12 fights of her career, Rousey had gone undefeated with 10 finishes via submission and two by knockout. One of those knockouts against Alexis Davis came after Rousey tossed the Canadian fighter to the mat before landing a series of strikes to put an end to the fight.
Rousey did land a vicious knee strike that put away former Olympian Sara McMann but it appeared the confidence in her boxing truly blossomed after she knocked out Bethe Correia at UFC 190.
A striking heavy strategy backfired against former boxing champion Holly Holm and it appeared that same game plan was in effect for Rousey against Nunes on Friday night. Now Rousey's latest opponent is pointing the finger directly at her coach for leading her in the wrong direction, which has now cost her two consecutive knockout losses in a row.
