Former UFC champion Ronda Rousey took to social media this afternoon to thank Derek Brunson for teaching her pupil Edmen Shahbazyan some valuable lessons.
Shahbazyan (13-1 MMA) suffered the first loss of his professional career to Brunson (21-7 MMA) in the headliner of last weekend’s UFC Vegas event.
After a back and forth opening first round, Derek Brunson was able to turn the tide in his favor in round two and nearly finished Edmen Shahbazyan at the end of the round. However, despite being badly hurt, the budding star in Shahbazyan opted to come back out for the third and final round where he was promptly finished by the seasoned veteran.
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, who manages Shahbazyan, took to Twitter this afternoon where she addressed his first career setback.
https://twitter.com/RondaRousey/status/1292178784167161856
“Thank you Derek Brunson, congrats on your well deserved victory and thank you for teaching Edmen Shahbazyan lessons he needed to learn to be a champion.”
Similar to her client, Ronda Rousey started off her mixed martial arts career going a perfect 12-0 before eventually surrendering his first career defeat to Holly Holm at UFC 193. So it will be interesting to see what advice she can offer Edmen Shahbazyan following his first career defeat.
Prior to his fight with Brunson at UFC Vegas 5, Shahbazyan spoke about his relationship with ‘Rowdy’ on a recent episode of BJPENN.com’s Just Scrap Radio.
“It is definitely cool as I’ve dedicated my life to this sport and I’m going after my dreams. But, yeah Ronda and I always keep up with each other. We just talk and it is always motivating talking to her and incredible getting tips from her. Whenever she is in town we see each other,” he concluded. “It has been motivating as I saw it first hand on how she did it. She inspired me.”
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This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on August 8, 2020