Ronda Rousey’s mom, Dr. AnnMaria De Mars has never been one to hold back from speaking her mind, and it seems she has plenty to say about her daughters long-time coach Edmond Tarverdyan, and none of it is flattering.
“I think Edmond is a terrible coach, and I will say it publicly,” De Mars told LatiNation during a video interview. “I think he’s a terrible coach. I think he hit the lottery when Ronda walked in there.”
De Mars, who is herself a former judo world champion and also taught Rousey how to execute her now infamous armbar submission at a young age, appears to take exception to how Tarverdyan treated ‘Rowdy’ when she first joined his Glendale Fight Club in California, even although by that stage she was already a decorated judo practitioner who’d won a bronze medal at the Olympics.
“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,” De Mars recalls. “Somebody like that is a terrible coach.”
De Mars goes on to say that in her opinion Rousey remains at the gym due to superstition rather than the quality of the coaching on offer.
“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 – and 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’ – he’s a bad person, and people should not go there. And if he wants to sue me, that’s my honest opinion.”
In the recent De Mars has also been critical of some of the friends that her daughter surrounds herself with, though so far she hasn’t commented on Rousey’s relationship with Travis Browne, who also happens to train under Tarverdyan at Glendale Fight Club along with the likes of Jake Ellenberger and Manny Gamburyan.
Watch De Mars interview below and scroll down to watch an extended interview with Rousey and Tarverdyan on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast from earlier this year.
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