Ronda Sparring Partner Talks — ‘She can’t box, didn’t train well, they all lied’
Ronda Rousey’s big return at UFC 208 was derailed rather quickly by UFC bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. It took the champion a mere 48 seconds to put away Rousey and hand her another career setback with much of the blame coming down on her training camp. No one is totally sure how Ronda’s camps have really gone, but her head coach Edmond Tarverdyan would always tell the media that Rousey was not only dropping boxing world champion in sparring, but that she could walk right into boxing and become a world champion there as well.
WBC boxing champion Diana Prazak was one of the women brought in to work with Rousey during her training camps. More specifically they were brought in as sparring partners for the former UFC bantamweight champion, but both Prazak and Mayer said things weren’t as good as her camp liked to tell the media. They spoke to Sky Sports about what it was really like when sparring with Ronda Rousey.
“She was stiff, she’s not a striker, and you don’t punch a puncher. She’s not a boxer, that’s not something you pick up in a couple of months. I started working with Ronda over two years ago but, but when she was going to fight Holly Holm, they stopped me being her sparring partner. Our spars were always battles, they were harder than the fights she was having. We had great sparring – she was getting better. My opinion? It wouldn’t have been good for her confidence to keep sparring me, and not being successful. Edmond made that decision. She isn’t a striker.”
In fact, Prazak said the famous story of Ronda dropping a boxing world champion in training was a specifically referencing her, which they called and complained to Tarverdyan about.
“He was talking about me. My trainer rang him to say ‘why would you make that up?’ It’s an untruth. I hope she comes back with a totally different team around her who look after her safety.”
Olympian Mikaela Mayer was also brought in by Rousey’s camp as a sparring partner, and despite what Edmond Tarverdyan says, Mayer said there’s no way Rousey would be competitive in a stand up fight.
“No, of course not. I have been training for 10 years to be at this level. For her to just walk in to the Olympic level and be competitive – that’s just not probable. That’s not just her, it goes for anybody. The experience you need to compete at this level is just tremendous. You don’t just walk in and kick people’s a*s unless you’re Claressa Shields! We do four two-minute rounds – it’s the pace and scoring that you need to learn. Of course just like I wouldn’t be at the same level in MMA or judo”.
For what it’s worth, she did say that Rousey gave her some good work due to her willingness to come forward and throw hard punches.
“We went at it 100 per cent. For me, as an Olympic-style boxer, it was good work because she gave me that style. She lets her hands go, she punches hard. She kept coming forwards so I had to punch in combinations, I couldn’t just throw two. When she got on the inside, I had to work her body.”
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