As Ronda Rousey contemplates a potential return to MMA after nearly nine years away from the octagon fans are revisiting some of the more outrageous claims made during her meteoric rise. Perhaps none was more memorable than the time her coach Edmond Tarverdyan appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and casually mentioned that Rousey could throw an astronomical number of punches in training.
During their 2015 appearance on JRE #690 Tarverdyan described Rousey’s shadow boxing routine with characteristic Armenian confidence.
“She does 10 rounds of shadow boxing,”
he explained to Rogan detailing how she would throw
“575 punches in 3 minutes with two-pound dumbbells.”
The math was staggering – if extrapolated over 15 minutes that would equal roughly 2,875 punches which Tarverdyan rounded up to an even more impressive
“3,000 punches in 15 minutes.”
What made the moment memorable wasn’t just the outlandish number but Rogan’s complete acceptance of it. The podcast host known for his skepticism and fact-checking simply nodded along as if throwing 200 punches per minute was perfectly reasonable.
“That’s ridiculous,”
Rogan said in an admiring tone that suggested he bought into the mystique completely.
This exchange encapsulated the Rousey phenomenon at its peak. She was so dominant so seemingly superhuman in her abilities that even the most absurd training claims felt plausible. Tarverdyan’s hyperbolic descriptions of her capabilities became part of the legend – whether it was predicting exactly how her opponents would lose or claiming she could outbox Floyd Mayweather.
The 3,000 punches claim has since become a meme in MMA circles representing the height of Rousey mania when fans and media alike were willing to believe anything about the seemingly unstoppable champion. It also highlighted the unique dynamic between Rousey and Tarverdyan with the coach often making grandiose statements while she sat quietly beside him occasionally rolling her eyes at his more outlandish pronouncements.
Looking back nearly a decade later as a 38-year-old Rousey trains again after giving birth to her second child the claim seems almost quaint. The invincibility aura has long since been shattered by her losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes and her subsequent admission that concussions played a role in her decline has added context to what once seemed like superhuman abilities.
Yet for those who lived through the peak of Rousey mania Tarverdyan’s confident assertion that his student could throw 3,000 punches in 15 minutes – and Rogan’s complete buy-in – remains a perfect time capsule of when Ronda Rousey could do no wrong at least in the eyes of her believers.
