Miesha Tate Is Tired Of UFC Pushing Her Around — Should ‘Cupcake’ Jump To Bellator MMA?
On Saturday, July 25, 2015 at UFC Fight Night: Dillashaw vs. Barão 2, Miesha Tate took on up-and-coming contender Jessica Eye in the co-main event. After three rounds of pure fighting, “Cupcake” came out on top with an unanimous decision win over “Evil.” The victory would also mark the fourth straight win in a row for Tate in which it supposedly secured her another title shot against UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey. However, Dana White had other plans as he booked “Rowdy” to take on “The Preacher’s Daughter,” Holly Holm instead at UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holm. Needless to say, Tate was shocked she was skipped over when she worked so hard for her rematch.
Now, the said initial shock has subsided giving way to frustration as Miesha Tate is now saying she doesn’t trust UFC anymore and is tired of the promotion pushing her around. Yet, would it be a better move for her to make the jump to Bellator MMA now that Scott Coker is bringing back women’s MMA into the promotion?
Miesha Tate made it known how she will move forward with UFC during an interview with Ground and Pound TV in Las Vegas, Nevada (attached above), as reported by MMA News. Tate made it known if UFC wants to continue utilizing her in their promotion, it can no longer be verbal. Ergo, all business must be done through a contractual agreement.
“I think more things are going to have to be contractually agreed upon, not verbally. That’s what happens when you can’t come to a verbal trust point. I’m going to have to have things written down from now on.”
Along with the aforementioned, Miesha Tate did express her disdain in which she believes she is being booked to fight better fighters in her division, while Ronda Rousey gets easy pickings per se. This does make sense given the fact Tate’s last two fights were against contenders ranked in the top five at the time. Rousey on the other hand is fighting contenders ranked low in the top ten. Bethe Correia was originally ranked number eight at the time while Holly Holm was ranked number nine.
And now, UFC wants Miesha Tate to fight Amanda Nunes, a contender who is currently ranked No. 4 in the division. Tate, however, has no intent of fighting Nunes, claiming it should be Ronda Rousey fighting the best while she takes on lower ranked fighters, as reported by Fox Sports.
“That is the champion’s job, to fight the best girls in the world, so when I’m the champion, then we’ll talk.”
From all that is happening in her career, Miesha Tate did say she was in an awkward stage in her career and did not know what is the best next step in moving forward. With that in mind, it might actually be good for her to consider jumping to Bellator MMA in the future. The promotion is becoming a viable rival to UFC as of late. Not only that, Scott Coker is putting into motion to bring back women’s MMA into it evidenced by signing Keri Anne Taylor-Melendez.
Once the division is established, who knows right? One detail from past reports seems to make it certain MMA fighters working in Bellator MMA are happier. Just ask Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis about that. Maybe Miesha Tate will be happier there too once they have women’s divisions set up.
[Image via Christian Petersen/Getty]
