Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate agree to disagree heading into TUF's next season

SEATTLE -- If you thought that Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate would get over their grudges after six weeks together on The Ultimate Fighter -- much like Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen one season before -- well, guess again.

"We're not going to be making cupcakes anytime soon," Rousey, the UFC women's bantamweight champion, told reporters Saturday at Key Arena.

"We don't like each other," Tate concurred in a separate media scrum. "It's natural. It's just what you would expect. Two women who can't stand each other who want to strangle each other."

There's much in the way of early buzz for TUF's 18th season, which premieres on Sept. 4 on FOX Sports 1. With two coaches who have a well-known disdain for one another overseeing the first co-ed season in the infamous TUF house, expectations are high.

And while the competing coaches can't give away specifics on what goes down during the show, if you read between the lines, it's clear the drama aspect will be played up to the hilt.

"I adore my team," Rousey said. "I adore my kids, but they purposely, they kind of go for the drama aspect a little bit by forcing me to be around somebody that you can't stand all the time and you can't do anything about it. That's what they want. I don't like being put in an environment like that. It was time to get home."

Again, the rivals concur. "It was a little harder than I thought it would be," Tate said. "Dealing with Ronda every single day wasn't a cakewalk. Getting so emotionally invested in the fighters, I just saw the preview for the first time and it was pretty intense. That's what it was. It was a long six weeks close to someone you don't like."

Dana White characterized both Rousey and Tate as "crazy" during the tapings. While Tate wouldn't use that word, she feels the two were accurately portrayed.

"I think we're going to come off exactly like we are," Tate said. "We don't like each other. It's natural. It's just what you would expect. Two women who can't stand each other who want to strangle each other."

Rousey, meanwhile, is keeping a typically busy schedule, adding a role in the movie Expendables 3 to her ever-increasing profile. Rousey insisted, though, that she didn't accept the role until she was assured she'd have time to adequately prepare for her UFC 168 rematch with Tate on Dec. 28.

"That was my first concern, and they've been extremely accommodating," said Rousey. "I'm going to be able to move people from my camp over where I want to be at filming it's going to be me training all the way through this. If I was going to have three jobs and train at the same time, then I can have one other job and train at the same time. Kind of like a different location, it's going to be kind of difficult. I can multi-task, I do it all the time."

Rousey also managed to find time to give a few thoughts for erstwhile nemesis Cris Cyborg, who is currently the Invicta featherweight champion.

"She's always on my radar, but I have a really full plate right now," Rousey said. "She has nothing to worry about but me. If she's going to get off her ass and make this fight happen and cause all this commotion, it's really easy for me. I've got a lot of things going on. I mean, she's fighting random chicks that, I mean, when was the last time Marloes [Coenen], it took her longer and more energy to beat Marloes than Miesha did. So when I'm thinking about it in my algebraic sense, it's only the MMA diehards who are really looking forward to that fight and I also think that if that fight happens.

"I'm here," Rousey continued. "I've always been ready for it, but like I said before it's no coincidence to me that a few days after the announce out of competition drug testing in the UFC, she asked for her release. And the UFC was going to allow her to fight in Invicta, whatever promotion she wanted, but as long as there's drug testing, I don't think she's going to be here."

Tate, though, has no such outside worries. Just several months thinking about the woman who took her Strikeforce title and then rocketed to fame.

"The reason I don't like her personally is she's been so disrespectful to me," Tate said. "Put yourself in my shoes. I'm the champion, I've never heard of this Ronda Rousey girl and all of a sudden I see an interview and she says I'm going to drop 135 and I'm going to slap the title out of her hands. That was the tone I got from her from the very beginning because I was the champ at the time. It's hard to like someone who comes at you so disrespectful."