Edmond Taverdyan has been talking up Ronda Rousey’s boxing for quite some time now. Not only does he claim that Ronda is the best striker in Women’s MMA, he even says that he doesn’t just ‘think’ Ronda can be a boxing world champion, he ‘knows’ it.
Must Reads
Must Reads
The GFC head coach also stated that Ronda would easily beat decorated boxer Holly Holm in her own sport, and that she has never lost a single round against all the boxing champs she spars with.
While the Judo Olympian did showcase improved boxing during the Correia bout, Ronda’s technical ability didn’t exactly look like it was at the level her coach was claiming to be just yet. This is what a couple of female boxing champs stated as they were far from impressed from what they’ve seen from the UFC champ’s hands.
“I think she’s just brand new at boxing,” WBA champ Layla McCarter, told the Guardian. “She’s very good at what she does, but she needs to stay in her lane because boxing takes a lot of experience to reach the top level. She better just stay in her lane because she’s going to get hurt.”
“I know [Rousey competing in boxing] would be a disaster for her and I know Dana White would never let that happen.”
Similar sentiments were shared by multiple-division boxing champ Amanda Serrano after seeing the Correia fight.
“Her movement is very bad, how she walks into punches and she would get caught,” she said. “The girls that she’s fighting, they’ve got limited boxing skills.”
“Definitely Rousey’s trainer does not have any knowledge about the sport of boxing,” Serrano told a separate outlet in Round by Round Boxing, “Her opponents cannot box and it’s easy to look great… As a boxing point of view, she looked like a rookie amateur fighter, throwing very wide punches with no coordination.”
Apart from Rousey’s past fights, the decorated boxer also went on to critique one of the few sparring footages available from Rousey; one where she trains with Vic Darchinyan.
“You were able to see that her boxing skills weren’t there,” Serrano said. “He was throwing stupid punches and catching her. Her movement, her whole body mechanics weren’t there. Her hands were down, she was doing something with her elbow, at one point she was trying to be like Mayweather. It just wasn’t put together right.”
“In fact, they made a mistake putting (the video) up. I don’t know how the trainer Edmond says she’s never lost a round in the gym. Even the best of the best lose in the gym. From what I seen in that sparring session with Victor, she lost every round.”
While both boxers acknowledged and respected what Rousey has done in MMA and for female combat sports athletes, they really just seemed to have a gripe with the claims of easily crossing over. Serrano’s manager was quick to point out that fact as well.
“We do not challenge other fighting styles. We represent boxing and we want to get some respect,” Jordan Maldonado said. “We are available for any sparring they may want or a boxing match, so we can show Edmond Tarverdyan how wrong he is about boxing.”
This isn’t the first time comments from Rousey and her camp caused a bit of a stir with athletes from another sport.
When Ronda said she can beat any BJJ girl in grappling, several champion grapplers were offended and started calling her out. Rousey then responded by telling me she’d gladly roll with them if they paid as much as the UFC did. I have a feeling she’d have a similar answer to these boxers.
About the author
