A fighter’s coaches, corners and team members are a huge part of their success.
Some fighters, like Ronda Rousey, are talented enough to make up for poor game-planning and so-so coaching. at least for a while. Not to pile on Ronda while she’s down, but a spade is a spade.
Holly Holm, on the other hand, has some of the absolute best coaching in all of MMA at the Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA Academy. They’re known for having some of the best strategies in MMA, and providing succinct advice in-between rounds.
If you listen to the audio of each fighter’s corner during the main event of UFC 193 Rousey vs. Holm, you’ll see the stark difference between the quality of advice coming from each corner.
Here’s a breakdown of observations based on what each fighter’s corner was telling them.
Ronda Rousey’s Corner…
- Ronda’s coach Edmond is a classic “yes man”, after the first round he was telling her that she was doing a great job which is why she didn’t try to change anything up.
- Her corner was shouting unactionable advice to her like “discipline!”, rather than something more specific that she could put to use.
- When Ronda’s in trouble several times during the fight, her corner goes silent. If she’s dazed and can’t put 1+1 together herself, she’ll be listening for the familiar voice of her coach but he’s not giving any guidance.
- After Ronda has been knocked out, when she’s on the mats with people around her recovering, you hear Herb Dean tell Edmond “Talk to her. Be honest.” Is that because Dean knows that it’s not in Edmond’s nature to be straight-up with Ronda?
- Ronda refuses to accept what happened, still blurry from the KO she refuses to take a seat on the stool and instead says that she wants to keep fighting.
Compare that to what Holly Holm’s corner was saying:
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