Ronda Rousey’s mom, Dr. AnnMaria De Mars, has come out and blasted her daughters coach Edmond Tarverdyan.
Dr. AnnMaria, a gold medallist in the 1984 World Judo Championships, has been a key component for Rousey’s success in combat sports. She said that Edmond hit the jackpot when Rousey walked in the door at Glendale Fighting Club and labelled him as a “terrible coach” and a “horrible person” and warned people to not join his gym.
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Alan’s Angle: I am personally in two minds about Edmond Tarverdyan. From the outside he seems really successful in what he does due to Rousey’s advances in her boxing and striking but the question is – could she have done the same somewhere else? Was it Edmond’s coaching that has brought Rousey along even further or was it Rousey’s drive?
Edmond has yet to coach someone else who is hitting the higher levels of the UFC. Travis Browne is 1-1 since joining up with him. He looked OK in his win over Brendan Schaub but then got TKO’d by Andrei Arlovski. Granted it could take a while to mesh with a new coach so the jury is still out on this case.
To me the example of a great coach is someone who is coaching a team of fighters who are uniformly reaching respective heights of success or a coach who has brought a fighter up from the beginning of his career all the way to the top or near the top. Rousey, as her mother stated, was already winning and being a success before she joined up with Edmond.
I’d like to wait a little more time before I form an opinion on Edmond but what Dr. AnnMaria says is really interesting.