It turns out media wasn't the only thing Ronda Rousey avoided ahead of UFC 207

BarDown Staff

Ronda Rousey , Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

There are more questions surrounding Ronda Rousey now than there were heading up to her bout at UFC 207 on December 30, 2016. A lot of different stories are coming out about her preparation for the fight and the things she was told by her coach Edmond Tarverdyan, and now it appears that skipping the UFC media wasn’t the only thing she was missing out on heading up to the bout.

According to Kenny Florian and Jon Anik, they believe that Rousey was doing very minimal sparring, if she was doing any at all.

“My understanding is that perhaps Rousey didn’t really spar leading up to this fight,” Kenny said (transcript via Bloody Elbow). “I get that they’re trying to preserve her from not getting hurt. But you’ve got to have some rounds. You’ve got to ready for the worst case scenario, which is Amanda Nunes striking with you. She wasn’t able to move her head, do anything defensively to avoid the striking skills of Amanda Nunes, and really paid for it.”

Rousey’s coach Tarverdyan is once again feeling the heat and is the one taking all the blame for her loss, and Florian doesn’t think Tarverdyan deserves to be where he is right now.

“I like Edmond. I spoke to him in various occasions, but he doesn’t have the experience for high level mixed martial arts,” Florian said. “That’s my opinion. He hasn’t been keeping up with it. I just think she needs a knowledgeable, experienced coach, wherever that is. She’s going to need much better coaching, and a much better team around her. That’s for sure.”

Amanda Nunes also put a lot of the blame on Rousey’s coach and wasn’t afraid to hold back her thoughts during her post-fight press conference.

It’s not just the people watching from the outside, it’s the people closest to Ronda who don’t agree with her coaching decision, as well. Ronda’s own mother has spoken out on multiple occasions about how she really feels about her daughter’s coach.