LOS ANGELES -- Miesha Tate has been through this before. She's watched as someone else swooped in and got a shot at the UFC women's bantamweight title.
It happened just last year, when Tate was promised a chance at then-champion Ronda Rousey, only to turn around and find that Holly Holm got the shot instead.
Tate wasn't happy, but she got her opportunity at UFC 196 and deposed new champion Holm to take the title.
Maybe that's why she's not too bothered about the latest developments in the division. While Tate wasn't promised a title shot this time, she watched Rousey return after a year away and get the UFC 207 matchup with Amanda Nunes, who defeated Tate for the title at UFC 200.
"I already knew that was going to happen, so I just tried not to overthink it," Tate said Wednesday. "I fully anticipated that if and when [Rousey] made her comeback, that it would be for a title shot, so given that, it was no surprise."
Tate, who fights Raquel Pennington on the main card of UFC 205 in New York on Nov. 12, is able to put aside her personal feelings about Rousey enough to understand why the UFC would put Rousey back into a title fight after a year away.
"Ronda, for the longest time, was one of the best in the world, and if you want to make an argument, you could say she had an off-night like I did," Tate said. "So, she's still a big presence in this sport even though she's been gone a long time. It's going to create a lot of viewership and I guess in that sense, from a business perspective it makes sense."
Tate does, however, question whether stepping right back into a title fight after suffering a crushing knockout loss to Holm at UFC 193 is Rousey's right move.
"I don't know what it's going to do for Ronda as far as where she's at, you know what I mean?" Tate said. "Do I think maybe not a five-round fight or a warmup fight would be better for her? Probably. Ring rust is a real thing, it can affect fighters, and you don't know, mentally, she's been out of the limelight so long, none of us are involved in her personal life, so you don't know how she's been dealing with the loss since then."
Rousey made headlines this week when she appeared on the Ellen DeGeneris show and hinted that retirement will come soon rather than later. Tate, for her part, holds out hope that she'll get one more crack at her nemesis before she calls it a career.
"I know she's talked about retirement and I don't know why everyone is so surprised about that," said Tate, who lost to Rousey in Strikeforce and at UFC 168. "I feel like she was saying that before she lost to Holly, she was coming to a close. For me, I just want to fight her one more time, and granted that she gets the job done, and wants to continue fighting. I would love to go one more time, so hopefully it's not too much of a race against the clock and I will be watching that fight with great interest."
Get the latest gear
