Coach Edmond Taraverdyan spoke with FightHub TV regarding his student, Shayna Baszler, who was once again injured and deemed unfit to compete in her anticipated match-up against former Strikeforce women's bantamweight champ Sarah Kaufman.
Edmond, the full-time trainer at the Glendale Fighting Club who has coached UFC women's bantamweight champ Ronday Rousey throughout her MMA career, explained the series of events that led to him taking the decision to remove Baszler from her upcoming fight.
"Shayna has been dealing with a lot of injuries." Taraverdyan told FightHub TV. "Her leg was injured; her ankle, and then she got back problems last week. She has been hurting a lot and has been doing therapy. I gave her the week off so that it would be better for her to train in the peak of her camp. She had a hard week. She was struggling and was hurt.
On Monday, I sat down and spoke to all the people that train with us and the coaches who help out and decided that it was best for her to pull out of this fight and get ready for the next fight."
The coach went on to explain that, considering the dangers present in the sport, he would have been morally incapable of sending in one of his students to an elite level MMA event injured.
"She has a lot of experience and I would hate to see her get into a fight that is not a fair fight. Being injured, anything can happen in that octagon and I wouldn't feel comfortable putting her into a fight. It is my job as a trainer to protect my fighters and make sure my fighter is healthy once they get into the octagon to compete, especially at that level."
While he admit that Baszler was in a frustrated and emotional state when she found out she would not be competing, Edmond explained that this was "best for her" in the long-run.
"So many crazy things happen in this sport. People get hurt and it is not smart getting in there being hurt. It is what it is. She was very upset. She was crying all day yesterday but the whole team is here and wants the best for her."