Ronda Rousey’s sparring partner can’t talk because she signed a nondisclosure agreement
With all the talk about Ronda Rousey’s apparent lack of striking capabilities following her 48-second loss to women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes last month, it seems logical to ask one of her sparring partners: Did Rousey really have trouble grasping the basic concepts of boxing? Or was her poor showing at UFC 207 just a really ill-timed fluke?
It appears fight fans might never know the opinion of those closest to the star while she trained because at least one of them is legally obliged to keep quiet.
“I can’t really talk about how sparring went or what we did,” fellow UFC bantamweight Raquel Pennington told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto in an interview published Friday night. “Ronda asked me to sign a nondisclosure agreement, so I did.”
Pennington went on to add the work they did together was “solid,” before ending her thoughts with, “I can’t say too much more than that.”
Okamoto did squeeze a bit more out of Pennington in other parts of the Q&A. For instance, Pennington, who just had surgery to repair a torn biceps, admitted to being injured during her sparring sessions with the 29-year-old.
Pennington, who beat Miesha Tate by unanimous decision at UFC 205 in November, said she began having shoulder issues even before that fight, but that she “felt it…