Miesha Tate Defends Raquel Pennington’s Corner From UFC 224 Criticism

Miesha Tate has given her take on the controversy involving Raquel Pennington.

It’s been well documented that Amanda Nunes successfully retained her women’s bantamweight title over Pennington at the UFC 224 pay-per-view event on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It was a one-sided fight that saw Pennington telling her corner of trainers that “I’m done” after the fourth round.

However, they did not let her give up and instead, they gave their fighter some encouragement as well as sent her back out for the fifth round.

This is when Nunes was able to finish the title contender to earn a TKO victory, which marked her third straight title defense.

Moving on to the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Tate stated during an appearance on SiriusXM Rush after the event that she agreed with Pennington’s corner to not stop the fight before the last round in this title bout.

“I think that I would’ve done the same thing if I was in her corner’s shoes,” Tate said (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “It’s important that a fighter loses with dignity, and I think that Raquel lost with dignity. She went out there and she got finished. She went out on her shield. I would have done the same thing because sometimes when you’re tired and you don’t think you have enough left, your coach’s job is to pull the most out of you and I think that’s what the corner was trying to do – not let her give up on herself, get her back in the game mentally. She lost, but she went out there. She could have quit at any point if she felt like she couldn’t hang in there. She got finished, and I would have done the same thing.”

“I think he didn’t want to let her give up on herself in the fifth round,” Tate said. “She’s very durable and she’d been doing really well up until that point – not necessarily winning but she wasn’t out of the fight. I think she deserved to not give up on herself, to go out there and try to win that fight. It didn’t work out that way but it could have. She could have gone out there and done something incredible that fifth round and been like, ‘Thank you, coach. You’re a genius for not letting me give up in that fifth round.’

“You always have a little bit more in the gas tank when you feel like you’re done. I think that her coach really wanted to give her the best opportunity and not let her give up on herself.”

Tate does have a history with both fighters. First, she lost the title to Nunes back in July of 2016 where she suffered a defeat to Nunes by rear-naked choke in the first round of the UFC 200 main event.

Then, Tate fought and lost to Pennington in her last pro-MMA bout at UFC 205 in November of 2016.

“When you’re in those mentally weak spots, that what your coach is there to do. Your coach is there to say, “No, no, no. Don’t give up on yourself. You made it this far. You’ve got one more round. Five more minutes for the rest of your life. I’m not going to let you quit.’ That’s the coach’s job and I think that he made the right decision.”

“She did get finished but if she really wanted to she could have just said, ‘I’m not gonna go out for the next round,’” Tate said. “I think she was looking for her coach to give her the words of encouragement. ‘I want to be done.’ Yeah, but you’re not. And she got off the stool and went back out for the fifth round. She didn’t have to do that. Nobody tied her hands behind her back and shoved her out there.

“She got the opportunity to win or to lose, to finish or to be finished. She had every opportunity in the book, and I think she’ll be glad that she went out for the fifth round and overcame that mental hurdle of not wanting to. She poured her whole heart out there, and I don’t think she’s going to regret that decision.”