Miesha Tate explains why she’s upset she didn’t get to rematch Holly Holm, despite beating her in their first UFC outing.
Although victorious in their first meet, Miesha Tate wishes she could run things back with Holly Holm.
The idea of fighting someone a second time after you beat them might not make sense to most, especially if their opponent doesn’t have a title or major spot on the rankings, but for Tate, rematching Holm is a personal matter. That’s why Tate is upset that she’ll likely never get the chance to do so before she hangs up the gloves now that Holm finds herself outside the UFC.
“I’m bummed I missed the window with a Holly rematch,” Tate told MMA Junkie Radio.
“It’s just a chip on my shoulder that people think that I narrowly won by a hail marry. I didn’t see it that way at all. I know that she won three rounds by point scoring me, but there was literally no damage done to me in the fight, at all. In the second round, I took her down, and it was a 10-8 round. I dominated the round from bell to bell. So going into the fifth round, if I won that round, it was a draw. People think back and be like, ‘Oh, she was getting her ass kicked, and she’s so lucky.’
“Let me get this straight. Facts: I was not getting my ass kicked, I was getting outpointed, narrowly in my opinion. I’ll give her Rounds 1, 3, and 4, but I dominated her in Round 2. I dropped heavy elbows, I attempted submissions. In the (fifth) round, I got a fairly early takedown, and I was on my way to winning that round, which would’ve made it a draw. It wouldn’t have been enough to give me the belt, so yes, I needed to finish that fight for legacy purposes, but it still makes me mad that people recall it (as a beating). I won Comeback of the Year, that’s ridiculous.”
Tate and Holm met at UFC 196 in 2016. Tate entered as the challenger, and Holm as the defending champion. It was a fight that had Holm controlling most of the action, and seemed to be cruising her way to a clear decision win. However, Tate turned that around deep into the fifth round, putting Holm to sleep with a rear-naked choke to crown herself UFC women’s bantamweight champion.
Tate won Comeback of the Year at the World MMA Awards and other media outlets for that performance against Holm. Although she’s thankful for the recognition, she feels like the MMA community has a revisionist history of her bout, something she wanted to reconfigure in a potential rematch.
“I never looked like I was done in that fight, so to me the award was weird to accept because I’m like, yeah, I needed to finish it, but I was never getting demolished,” Tate said. “So anyway, that’s why I wanted the rematch. I wanted to settle that, and dominate.”
Tate returns to the cage on May 3 at UFC on ESPN 67. She takes on fellow veteran Yana Santos.
