Ronda Rousey Allegedly Didn't Do Much Sparring Prior To Her Fight Against Amanda Nunes

Uproxx- “My understanding is that perhaps Rousey didn’t really spar leading up to this fight,” Kenny said (transcript via Bloody Elbow). “I get that they’re trying to preserve her from not getting hurt. But you’ve got to have some rounds. You’ve got to ready for the worst case scenario, which is Amanda Nunes striking with you. She wasn’t able to move her head, do anything defensively to avoid the striking skills of Amanda Nunes, and really paid for it.”


I say "allegedly" not because I have no idea what the 'Bloody Elbow' is and therefore can't speak to the reliability of it's hosts. I say "allegedly" because I have a hard time believing that Ronda Rousey didn't put her work in the ring after watching her recent performance in the octagon. Seriously, have you even seen someone that looked so at ease having their face brutally beat in? There was a stark difference in the way she got plummeled to the ground by Holly Holm and the way she stood "tall" and absorbed TWENTY SEVEN punches directly to the jaw from Amanda Nunes. I think it's safe to say her boxing training was misguided, but you can't convince me it was few and far between when she looked exponentially more comfortable being treated like a punching bag this time around. Did you see how she was able to contort her face in order to eat - what felt like - enough fists to fill a guest list for a 'Black Panther' party? How else would she have developed that ability other than repetition? That's not to say that both of her losses weren't equally as embarrassing or that she looked like she had learned from her mistakes for even a fraction of a second. However, at least she's displayed a level of improvement in dealing with the consequences of her undeniable flaws that could only be possible by getting sparred into a sub-concious state dozens of times during her suicidal sabbatical.