Holly Holm is a boxer. She’s classically trained with quick fists and, arguably, quicker feet. So it would make sense if when she steps into the Octagon with Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 on Saturday in Australia, she plays to her strength: Moving, and preferably constantly so Rousey can’t catch up.
But as far as Rousey’s coach, Edmond Tarverdyan, is concerned, Holm can do whatever she wants on Saturday. It won’t make much of a difference.
“It doesn’t matter if (Holm) tries to keep the distance or how long she wants to keep it,” Tarverdyan recently told Submission Radio. “Champ (Rousey) knows exactly what she’s going to be doing in there. And even if she runs, I always say, you can run but you can’t hide. And she’s not going to be able (to) run quicker backwards as Ronda can move forward. That’s not gonna happen. We’re not going to see that. Ronda’s legs are the best.”
Tarverdyan, while admitting he’s always nervous for his fighters regardless of circumstance, isn’t worried about Rousey’s boxing ability.
“I didn’t let Ronda throw punches for the, maybe, first year and a half, two years of training with me,” he said. “It’s been all footwork, basic boxing fundamentals, and just knowing how to cut off the ring, press and do everything the right way.”
On second thought, maybe Holm should just get the confrontation part over with, since it sounds like Rousey can, and will, keep chasing her.
Thumbnail photo via Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports Images
H/t to FOX Sports
