Dana White Says Miesha Tate’s Retirement Makes Sense

Former Strikeforce and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate returned to action during the preliminary portion of this past weekend’s (Nov. 12, 2016) monumental UFC 205 card from New York, dropping a lackluster decision loss to Raquel Pennington.

In the aftermath of the fight, Tate surprisingly announced her retirement from fighting, an announcement UFC President Dana White admits he was taken a back by:

“I didn’t see the Miesha Tate thing coming, but you know, it makes sense,” White said at the UFC 205 post-fight press conference.

“Miesha’s been so tough and durable, and not a tough, durable woman, but a tough, durable athlete. She’s been in this for so long, and I could just tell when I talked to her tonight.”

Prior to losing to Pennington, Tate had surrendered her title in brutal fashion to current titleholder Amanda Nunes at July’s UFC 200. After that fight, it seemed as “Cupcake” was at a bit of a cross roads, making her retirement ‘make sense’ as White stated.

The UFC boss also said that him and Tate had a bit of an argument back stage, although he confirmed that their relationship could potentially continue into the future:

“Her and I had a little bit of a thing tonight,” explained White. “She was refusing to go to the hospital. And I’m like, ‘you’re going to the hospital.’ She’s like, ‘f*ck you, I don’t work for you anymore.’

“So, yeah. I was like, that’s a good point, but you need to go to the hospital. … Then I had to start begging, ‘if you go to the hospital tonight, I’ll get you another job doing something else, and I could be your boss again.’ So, she went, yeah. She has to go.”

Were you surprised about Tate’s announcement? One thing is for sure, she leaves a big hole in the top ten at w-135.