Dana White Claims He Booked ‘Ronda Rousey Vs. Holly Holm’ To Save Miesha Tate From ‘Killing Her Career’
When Miesha Tate won her fight against Jessica Eye back on UFC Fight Night: Dillashaw vs. Barao 2, Tate thought she finally earned her chance to take on Ronda Rousey again, the final fight in a trilogy. Unfortunately, UFC and Dana White had other plans as it was eventually announced that Rousey’s next opponent would actually be Holly Holm. Needless to say, Tate was shocked to find out she was skipped over. In White’s defense, his reasoning for skipping Tate does make sense as many MMA fans aren’t looking for Rousey to fight Tate again given the fact that Tate already had two chances.
Now there seems to be more to why Dana White skipped over Miesha Tate for the next UFC women’s bantamweight championship fight against Ronda Rousey. Apparently, he made such a call to save “Cupcake” from “killing her career.”
Dana White made such an intention known during an interview on UFC Tonight, as reported on MMA Mania. White claims the change in plans may have very well saved Miesha Tate’s career.
“When you really look at that fight, Miesha has lost to her twice. Holly Holm, WBC, WBA, WBF, IBA, you name it, she’s won the belt in boxing. She’s 9-0 in mixed martial arts (MMA) and if you look at the range and the distance, the head kicks, all the attributes. When we originally brought in Holly Holm, it was to fight Ronda Rousey. That fight makes sense. Miesha, at this point in her career, if she loses to Ronda Rousey a third time, it’s a career killer.”
UFC is also historically known to be hesitant to book trilogy fights between fighters. They usually only happen when each fighter has a victory each, as reported by MMA Junkie. That is not the case for Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. As mentioned earlier, Rousey has two victories over Tate. Therefore, the latter runs the gamut of either gaining or losing everything if the fight were to happen. Dana White, being business-minded and UFC president, weighed both options, realizing there is more to lose if Tate loses again than to gain if Tate wins.
Still, not all hope is lost for Miesha Tate. Dana White is actually not against the idea of Tate fighting Ronda Rousey again. Just for now, he’s unsure if such a fight is a good call during this point of Tate’s career. White is willing for said fight to happen after Tate wins at least three more times. Luckily for Tate, Bethe Correia is wanting to step up to her.
Seriously though, if Miesha Tate really wants to truly stand out, she may need to fight Cristiane Justino (a.k.a. Cris Cyborg) in a catchweight. If Tate wins, she would have accomplished something nobody was able to do for the last decade in a fight condition Ronda Rousey has dodged for the past number of years.
[Image via Atsushi Tomura/Stringer/Getty]
