EXCLUSIVE | Richard Perez on Ronda Rousey: ‘She said she never had anybody train her like I did’

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has her first fight scheduled since losing the belt to Holly Holm at UFC 193 last November.

Rousey will look to get back to the top of her division but is tasked to do so against a tough opponent in the current champion Amanda Nunes.

A former trainer of Rousey, Richard Perez, who is well known for working with the Diaz Brothers spoke with BJPenn.com Radio host, “Kinch” on this week’s episode and touched on Rousey’s return to the Octagon and what he feels is necessary for her to get back the belt.

“You know to be honest with you, I don’t know how she is being trained over there [at Glendale Fighting Club],” Perez said. “I know I trained her for a couple fights before and she did really good. I mean I trained her really hard, she loved it. She said she never had anybody train her like I did. You know, I don’t know what they do over there so I can’t give an answer on how it’s gonna come out.”

“Kinch” asked Perez if he would still be open to training Rousey, to which he replied he would be more than happy to do so.

“Oh yeah, if she was to call me, yeah,” Perez said. “You know, cause I know how to work her. I mean, I’ve worked with her before for two fights so I know. I don’t know anything about her trainer but if she comes to me, she knows she’s gonna get a good workout, good technique. You know, technical and try to be on the money and I’ve watched Cyborg’s fights, watched them and studied them and then give her ideas and work with it from there.”

When Perez was asked what he feels Rousey needs to do to find success over Nunes, Perez briefly broke their matchup down.

“Well, she’s fighting Nunes right now so I guess she’s ready for that fight. But, Nunes is a pretty busy fighter. So, what she has to do is she has to take away the kicks and the punches that Nunes is gonna do so that she can take her down. So, that is something that I’d have to work with her.

“When she fought Holly, she came out the wrong way. She came out forward, throwing and swinging and not paying attention, not trying to take her down real hard. She just didn’t set anything up. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know, maybe the training camp was good and she starts thinking. Like when I said, when a fighter gets in there, sometimes they change their mind. Once they get in there they think, ‘OK, I can do this.’ I don’t know. But, I would definitely tell her don’t make the mistake that you did last time. Go out there forward and just focus on one thing. Be sharp, make her miss, move around, you know cause Nunes is gonna be a striker. Ronda has to focus on throwing good strikes but yet trying to shoot on her at the same time. It’s all about timing.”