Miesha Tate: ‘I Love Punching Ronda Rousey’s Face’
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has her next two fights lined up, if she is victorious at UFC 190, as Miesha Tate was confirmed as getting the next title shot. UFC on FOX 16 saw ‘Cupcake’ put on a dominant performance against Jessica Eye, dropping ‘Evil’ early on and getting the golden duck on the judge’s scorecards. UFC president Dana White made it official at the post-fight press conference last night (Saturday July 25th, 2015), so either Rousey vs. Tate 3, or Bethe Correia vs. Tate is next for the women’s 135-pound strap.
Of course UFC 190 will answer the question of who ‘Cupcake’ will collide with, as ‘Rowdy’ takes on ‘Pitbull’ in Brazil. As far as she is concerned, Tate doesn’t mind who she faces, but does get a kick out of punching her two-time opponent in the face, as per Dave Doyle of MMAFighting:
“I love punching Ronda in the face,”
“I mean, a bigger goal for me would be a win over Ronda, but in the big picture, my biggest goal is getting gold,” Tate said. “I want to say before I retire that I was the UFC world champion, so at the end of the day it doesn’t matter who has the belt. That’s the biggest goal.”
Rousey and Tate shared a back-and-forth rivalry during their stint on TUF (The Ultimate Fighter) as opposing coaches, often dubbed the biggest rivalry in WMMA (women’s mixed martial arts) history. Perhaps Correia’s suicide comments have overshadowed that fierce rancor, but there’s easily scope for a trilogy maker between Rousey and Tate, especially with the shallow nature of the top end of the division. ‘Cupcake’ continues, describing her feelings after ‘Rowdy’ refused to shake hands following their UFC 168 rematch:
“I mean it’s just Ronda, its just something you have to accept,” Tate said. “I didn’t really expect her to do it, but its my choice to extend my hand. I think that’s an important part of the sport, and we have many bigger differences than that. “
We’ll see how Miesha’s second attempt at UFC gold works out, but does she have the chops to beat either Correia or Rousey? We saw a lot of holes in her game plugged at UFC on FOX 16, but is she complete enough to hold the strap?
