Edmen Shahbazyan may have suffered his first professional defeat last weekend to Derek Brunson, but he learned plenty along the way.
Watch THREE title fights live on ESPN+!
- Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal
- Zhang Weili vs. Rose Namajunas
- Valentina Shevchenko vs. Jessica Andrade
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.
