Miesha Tate Is Impressed And Inspired By Ronda Rousey’s Performance Against Cat Zingano

Miesha Tate recently spoke about Ronda Rousey’s win against Cat Zingano, saying that she was not only impressed, but inspired.

Tate and Rousey, who made UFC history on Saturday when she ended the fight against Zingano with her famous armbar in 14 seconds, have a long history with one another.

Tate and the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, whose last three fights have lasted a combined total of 96 seconds, have met in the octagon twice, and twice Tate has been submitted with the arm bar by Rousey.

Despite their intense rivalry, Miesha says she is inspired by Ronda, and wants to be on her level.

“I’m not only impressed, I’m inspired,” Tate said during the UFC 184’s post-fight, according to MMAJunkie. “Every time I watch her fight, I realize she’s on such a different level, and I want to get on that level. That’s what I want. I want to get on that level. I want to figure out what it is – whether I have to train 12 hours a day – I want to figure out how to catch up. She’s a phenomenal athlete, she’s a phenomenal fighter, and I want to get on that level.”

Tate says she loves fighting Rousey and can’t wait to have her third shot against the champ.

“I love fighting Ronda Rousey because I think she pulls the best fighter out of me,” Tate explained. “That’s what it’s really about. For me, I want to be the best fighter I can be and the best person I can be. She motivates me to do both, and I love it. I love the challenge, I love everything she’s been able to do for the sport, and I love being part of that.”

Prior to Rousey’s win against Zingano, Tate predicted the outcome and offered up her prefight analysis to NESN.

“Ronda’s boxing and eye-hand coordination have come along very well, and she’s improving in her accuracy,” Miesha said of Ronda’s striking power. “But where I think Zingano is going to be better is with her kicks and knees, anything with her lower body. She’s worked a lot of Muay Thai, so her striking is different. Even when they’re in a clinch, she’s going to be very dangerous. She mixes in elbows, she mixes in knees and she kicks from a distance.”

“Ronda is more efficient in her takedowns than Cat,” Tate added when asked about Rousey’s takedown power. “Cat does have a wrestling background, so she’s going to be a little more difficult to take down than a lot of Ronda’s previous opponents. She’s going to have more awareness and more stability, more core strength and just overall balance than a lot of the girls Ronda has fought.”

Even though Miesha predicted that Rousey would win, she said she didn’t think it would happen that quickly.

“I predicted she would win with a first-round armbar, but I didn’t think it was going to go quite so fast,” Miesha said. “Cat Zingano wanted to make a statement and wanted to come out with a fast start. Everyone was criticizing the slow start and it led to her demise. She ended up getting that great throw then made some mistakes from there.”

Meisha is anxiously awaiting her chance to fight Ronda again, but she doesn’t mind it taking a while. She explained that she wants the fans to feel like she deserves another shot against Rousey and would earn that chance.

“I definitely want all the fans to feel like I’ve earned that [third fight],” Tate said. “I know that I’m on a three-fight win streak. I know that I’ve fought Ronda twice, but the first one was way back in Strikeforce. I showed improvement in the second fight, took her to the third round.”

[Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images]