Miesha Tate would love nothing more than to find out if the third time is the charm against “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey.
Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey are unquestionably two of the most recognized faces and acknowledged pioneers of women’s mixed martial arts (WMMA). They also were two of the sport’s fiercest rivals.
There was never any love loss between Tate and Rousey, as was evident in their stint as coaches on the 18th season of The Ultimate Fighter. Who could forget this gem of a scene, with Tate gifting her flippant castmate some middle-finger socks?
Suffice it to say, Rousey was not amused. She best expressed this by repaying Tate for this gift by armbarring her into submission at UFC 168. This was the second time Rousey defeated Tate, the first being at Strikeforce in 2012 in another armbar victory.
As Tate prepares to take on new-generation bantamweight in Ketlen Vieira this weekend, she took a brief walk down memory lane in appreciating what she and Rousey contributed to the sport. She also hopes that this stroll will ultimately arrive at a trilogy fight someday.
“I’m really grateful to have had somebody like Ronda as that foe,” Tate said in a sit-down interview with UFC reporter Megan Olivi. “It needed two parts. We needed that to make people care just beyond a sport, right? There was a storyline to follow, and it went on for—who knows? Maybe after she has kids she’ll want to come back and fight again. Who knows? Like, that would be a dream come true.
“But honestly, I look at it so different. I’m just so thankful to have that, not just maybe what it did for the sport, but I can truly, fully say from my first-hand perspective what it did for me. And it did amazing things. And she was the perfect person to have standing across the way from me.”
Ronda Rousey last competed in 2016 in a losing effort against Amanda Nunes. Tate will be headlining UFC Vegas 43 this Saturday against Ketlen Vieira in an attempt to push her post-comeback record to 2-0. Tate made her UFC return in July after a five-year layoff, becoming the first woman to finish Marion Reneau in the UFC.
Do you have any interest in seeing a third fight between Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate?
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