Edmen Shahbazyan may have suffered his first professional defeat last weekend to Derek Brunson, but he learned plenty along the way.
Shahbazyan took part in his first headliner at UFC Vegas 5 against Brunson and was a betting favorite going into their middleweight bout.
Despite a promising start from the young prospect, Brunson took over in the second round as he used his wrestling to end the stanza strong with brutal ground and pound. A dazed Shahbazyan made it to the third but didn’t last long as Brunson would eventually finish him off early on via TKO.
While Brunson was pleased to have ended a hype train, he did reserve praise for the 22-year-old and also defended his head coach Edmond Tarverdyan, who has been a frequent receiver of criticism for his coaching methods.
Thanks for the fight young man . You’ll be back ! Blessings 🙏🏾 https://t.co/0wvKvSbexU
— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunson) August 2, 2020
Edmond Tarverdyan was the head coach for Ronda Rousey who was 1 of the most dominate athletes on the planet & a got a 20 year old MW who he coached from youth,to the UFC who won several fights before finallly losing . Give that man some respect . Sounds like a good coach to me!!
— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunson) August 7, 2020
That received a response from former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, who was not only trained by Tarverdyan, but also manages Shahbazyan.
“Thank you @DerekBrunson, congrats on your well deserved victory and thank you for teaching @edmenshahbazyan lessons he needed to learn to be a champion ????????????????♀️”
Thank you @DerekBrunson, congrats on your well derserved victory and thank you for teaching @edmenshahbazyan lessons he needed to learn to be a champion
🙏🏼🙇🏼♀️ https://t.co/sB1haYysmf— Ronda Rousey (@RondaRousey) August 8, 2020
At the age of 22, Shahbazyan is already 4-1 with the UFC and if he comes out of this setback an even better fighter, his future will certainly remain bright, if not brighter.
