Ronda Rousey talks about … Leo Frincu

We asked UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey to discuss some of the people chiefly responsible for her success. We will post one each day leading up to Rousey’s first defense of her 135-pound title Saturday against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Today, Rousey talks about Leo Frincu, her strength and conditioning coach who owns Results Personal Training in Sherman Oaks:

I love Leo. He’s more like the life coach. I feel like I could be overwhelmed or whatever’s going on or fight camp, strength and conditioning … when you’re pushing yourself physically so hard, a lot of times a lot of emotional things come out. He’s more of the therapist/life coach role.

If I’m having trouble with any of the guys on the team, a lot of time I’ll talk to Leo and he’ll kind of smooth out the situation for everybody. He’s great. He’s a mixture. He’s Mr. Life Coach.

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Why UFC president Dana White loves co-main event Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida

Not only does UFC president White think the co-main event between former Pride and Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson and former UFC champion Lyoto Machida is a great matchup of styles, but he said the winner gets a shot at light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
“Lyoto has a style where he lays back and counterpunches, and Henderson moves forward and he’s aggressive, in your face the entire time,” White said. “I think the fight’s gonna be a great fight.”

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

UFC president Dana White: Looks like a lot of people — including me — were wrong about women’s MMA

UFC president Dana White never passes up a chance to run down those who have been proved wrong.
So for those who razzed him for deciding to put the first women’s fight in promotion history — bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey vs Liz Carmouche — as the main event for UFC 157 on Saturday at the Honda Center, it looks like White might get the last laugh.
At a press conference Thursday at the Honda Center, White said this card has already surpassed the gate the last time the UFC was in Anaheim — which featured the heavyweight title bout between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos at the end of 2012.
“There’s all this talk about pay-per-view buys and wondering how the women would do. I just talked with (Zuffa co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta) and this fight is trending very well,” White said. “So all the people, all the naysayers and everybody who said this and that about two women headlining a fight, I won’t be a prude, but you know what I usually say about this.”
It was pointed out, however, that one of women’s MMA’s biggest critics used to be White himself. The UFC head honcho was once caught on tape by TMZ claiming women’s MMA would never be in the UFC.
“Actually, the way I look at it is, you know, that’s just me. But there were a lot of people that felt very negative about women fighting in the sport, and I didn’t realize how many people would be so negative about two women headlining a card,” White said. “But after I did my homework and I saw some of these fights, I got into it, I met the girls, it is the right thing to do. I’m proud to be standing here today announcing this fight is gonna happen in two days.”

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Dana White 1, Ronda Rousey 0 for the UFC women’s bantamweight belt

Ronda Rousey reluctantly accepts her bantamweight belt from UFC president Dana White for a photo with challenger Liz Carmouche.

Ronda Rousey has yet to lose in the cage, but she begrudgingly accepted defeat on the stage Thursday.

At one point during the UFC 157 press conference at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Rousey said the only people she has left to prove wrong are those who say she doesn’t deserve the bantamweight title, which she was awarded by virtue of being the 135-pound champion in Strikeforce before it was absorbed by the UFC.

Then again, she kind of agrees with them.

“I won’t consider myself the UFC champion until I win a belt inside the Octagon, and that’s why you won’t see me touching or carrying this belt until after this fight,” she said.

But when it came time for Rousey and Carmouche to pose for pictures, White approached Rousey with the belt. The champ appeared to resist posing with the title, but the boss ultimately won that decision.

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Ronda Rousey talks about … Edmond Tarverdyan

We asked UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey to discuss some of the people chiefly responsible for her success. We will post one each day leading up to Rousey’s first defense of her 135-pound title Saturday against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Today, Rousey talks about Edmond Tarverdyan, her striking coach who runs Glendale Fighting Club in Glendale North Hollywood and has been in Rousey’s corner — figuratively and literally — throughout her MMA career:

Edmond is everything. He’s the brains behind the whole fight camp. He’s like one of my best friends. He’s my mentor. He’s my coach, He’s the person that … he’s my guardian. He oversees everything. He makes sure I’m OK. He’s so on top of everything. He coordinates the whole camp.

He pretty much, like, I really feel like the whole team and the whole camp is led between me and him, really more like a partnership, where’s he’s the head coach and I’m the athlete that it’s all centered around. But we really make every decision together, the both of us. We really make sure we agree before we take any sort of action.

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Ronda Rousey talks about Cyborg’s move to Invicta

Ronda Rousey was long thought to be a no-brainer superfight opponent for Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos, who had dominated all opposition in Strikeforce at 145 pounds. But things haven’t panned out.
Rousey dropped down to 135 pounds and won the Strikeforce bantamweight title and has since been named the UFC bantamweight champion. Santos tested positive for the steroid stanozolol, was stripped of her featherweight title and suspended a year.
With Santos’ ban recently lifted and Strikeforce essentially absorbed by the UFC, her options were limited when she declared she couldn’t safely cut enough weight to make 135 pounds.
So Rousey seemed amused by last week’s news that Santos had requested to be dropped from the UFC so she could sign with Invicta Fighting Championships.
“I think it’s just a plea for attention and an attempt to try and stay relevant. I mean, she hasn’t had a recorded win in over three years and the fight that she picked up is a chick that I beat in 26 seconds while I had nine stitches in my foot from a pitbull bite three days before,” Rousey said, referencing her March 2011 pro-debut victory over Ediane Gomes, who will fight Santos on April 5. “My mom hit me with a text the day they announced it and she’s like, “Unless she walks in and hits her and the other girl explodes, I’m not gonna be impressed.
“So I don’t know what she’s really trying to prove with this fight because it’s not gonna prove anything. But maybe it’s the only chick they could find to pick it up.”

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Dan Henderson addresses TRT talk before UFC 157

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) was thrust into the spotlight when UFC president Dana White, who previously hadn’t questioned its use by his fighters, criticized it last week, saying it has now become a way for fighters to cheat.
Dan Henderson, who has admitted to being one of several fighters in the UFC to undergo TRT and receive a Therapeutic Use Exemption, said his doctor had recommended it and that he’d been using it for five or six years.
“Before I did anything I called the athletic commission and made sure it was OK. And this was long time ago and they said no problem,” Henderson said. “I would welcome random drug testing for that and everything. I think that would help clean up the sport a lot and give it a better … when people look at it, there’s no bad taste in anybody’s mouth if the UFC really implements random drug testing.”
Henderson also made a case for fighters being judged on a case-by-case basis.
“I think maybe the UFC needs to have everyone see their doctor to get approved to begin with and go through their testing and make sure it’s legitimate and then monitor it a little bit better,” Henderson said. “It’s not too tough to monitor.”
When asked about White’s comment that if a fighter’s testosterone levels are too low, then they’re probably too old to be fighting, the 42-year-old smiled and shrugged it off.
“I don’t take anything he says personally,” he said. “He says a lot of things that are little bit off the wall. So I’m not worried about what he has to say.”

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Fighters fine with Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche as UFC 157 main event

The UFC’s decision in December to make Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche the main event over the highly anticipated light heavyweight battle between former Pride champion Dan Henderson (29-8) and former UFC champion Lyoto Machida (18-3) initially drew a negative reaction from a member of Henderson’s camp.
Henderson has since said he’s fine with it — not only is he a fight fan, but it means the MMA veteran has to fight only three rounds instead of five.
Add Machida to the list of those approving: “No problem for me. I appreciate that.”
Bantamweight Urijah Faber said it was cool to see such a historic event taking place, especially with a 2008 Olympic judo bronze medalist in Rousey facing a former U.S. Marine sergeant in Carmouche.
“You’ve got an Olympic athlete and a military veteran. It’s a lot of the same storylines you’ve seen throughout the history of our sport,” said Faber, who will fight Ivan Menjivar on the main card. “It’s great to see the women stepping in and doing it big.”
When someone inquired about Faber possibly facing bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz for a third time, “The California Kid” came up with this gem.
“I’d rather fight Ronda at this point,” he joked. “She’s got 185,000 followers on Twitter and Dominick has about 75 (thousand), so … Ronda, let’s do this!”

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email