Ronda Rousey’s mom doesn’t like her daughter’s coach, and she’s not afraid to let everyone know.
AnnMaria De Mars recently did an interview with LatiNation, in which she went off on Edmond Tarverdyan, Rousey’s longtime mixed martial arts coach. De Mars called Tarverdyan a “bad person” and urged others not to take him on as their instructor.
“I think Edmund is a terrible coach, and I will say it publicly,” DeMars told LatiNation. “I think he’s a terrible coach, I think he hit the lottery when Ronda walked in there. She was winning before she ever met him. She probably won 99 percent of the judo matches she ever fought in.
“She had won the Junior Worlds when she was 17. She got a bronze medal in the Olympics. She got a silver medal in world championships. She was one of the top athletes in the world when she walked in there, and he wouldn’t even give her the time of day for months. Somebody like that is a terrible coach.”
De Mars is an accomplished judoka herself and helped coach Rousey when she was a teenager. She believes the only reason her daughter has stayed with Tarverdyan for so long is out of superstition.
“I think she stays there because it’s like somebody pitches a no-hitter when they’re wearing red underwear, and they wear that red underwear for every day,” De Mars said. “I think it’s superstition, and I would caution anybody from going there. And I think it’s bad he uses her to lure people in, and the reason I tell everybody — and I told Ronda I’m not going to be quiet about this anymore.”
Despite the bantamweight champion’s terrible coach, Rousey is 12-0 in her UFC career and will look to stay undefeated when she takes on Holly Holm on Nov. 14 at UFC 193.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@120Sports
