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Former UFC Bantamweight Champion, Ronda Rousey recently sent a message to her former training partner Edmen Shahbazyan ahead of the latter's first-ever UFC main event this weekend.
While speaking to UFC President Dana White in the lead-up to the interview, Ronda Rousey praised Edmen Shahbazyan by stating that she and the whole team knew that the latter had a special talent in him.
Rousey, who also happens to be the manager of Shahbazyan, labeled the current UFC Middleweight prospect as a "special' young talent and revealed that the latter was called "Neo", as he was among one of the first generations of kids who did MMA.
Ronda Rousey further said that while she was in preparation for her UFC 157 fight against Liz Carmouche, Shahbazyan was her throw-in dummy for her open workout and he was 15 years old, at the time. The UFC Hall of Famer also added that Shahbazyan learned armbars from her, as well. (H/T: BJ Penn)
“Little Eddie, he’s always been special. He’s always been called Neo (from ‘The Matrix’). He’s the one. He’s one of the first generation of kids who only did MMA. He was obsessed with MMA when I was training with the gym. He was actually like my throw-in dummy for my open workout (before the Liz Carmouche fight at UFC 157. He was 15 years old, he was like still like bigger than me. But like he was one of my training partners. He learned armbars by me. He got beat up by me."
The former UFC Bantamweight Champion also added that Edmen Shahbazyan and his brother Leon Shahbazyan would show up with 10th planet books and were completely obsessed with MMA.
"He was in the gym at a very pivotal time and he and his brother (Leon Shahbazyan) would just like show up with 10th Planet (Jiu-Jitsu) books and they were completely obsessed. I’ve never seen kids more obsessed with MMA and that was like the first generation of that. I came up in like judo and other things and MMA became a thing that everyone else had to adjust to when they were aways experts in something else.”- Ronda Rousey added.
Ronda Rousey's legacy in the UFC
Ronda Rousey is a former UFC Bantamweight Champion and was mostly undefeated during her time in the promotion. She was usually known for ending fights within the first few minutes and even seconds, and her legacy in the fight game eventually got her inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
