Since she began her professional career, Ronda Rousey has been training under boxing coach Edmond Taverdyan at the Glendale Fight Club. It is a decision that many people have questioned, including her own mother, Dr. Ann Maria De Mars.
Taverdyan went under heavy criticism when Rousey badly lost to Holly Holm almost one year ago. This has led a good number of fans to clamor for her to jump ship and switch to another trainer. But apparently, she had already previously worked with another notable trainer, Richard Perez.
Perez, who is best known for his work with both Nick and Nate Diaz at Cesar Gracie’s gym in Lodi, spoke to BJPenn.com Radio about his experience training “Rowdy.”
“You know to be honest with you, I don’t know how she is being trained over there [at Glendale Fighting Club]. I know I trained her for a couple fights before and she did really good,” Perez recalled. “I mean I trained her really hard, she loved it. She said she never had anybody train her like I did. You know, I don’t know what they do over there so I can’t give an answer on how it’s gonna come out.”
Rousey is aiming to reclaim her title against the current champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 on December 30th. Perez says he is open to train Rousey for her upcoming fight, as he had already planned out a vague game plan, piggybacking from the Holm fight.
“Nunes is a pretty busy fighter. So, what she has to do is she has to take away the kicks and the punches that Nunes is gonna do so that she can take her down. So, that is something that I’d have to work with her.”
“When she fought Holly, she came out the wrong way,” he continued. “She came out forward, throwing and swinging and not paying attention, not trying to take her down real hard. She just didn’t set anything up. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know, maybe the training camp was good and she starts thinking. Like when I said, when a fighter gets in there, sometimes they change their mind. Once they get in there they think, ‘OK, I can do this.’ I don’t know.”
“I would definitely tell her don’t make the mistake that you did last time. Go out there forward and just focus on one thing. Be sharp, make her miss, move around, you know cause Nunes is gonna be a striker. Ronda has to focus on throwing good strikes but yet trying to shoot on her at the same time. It’s all about timing.”
