It looks like Miesha Tate and longtime rival Ronda Rousey will be seeing each other again in the ring soon. UFC President Dana White confirmed Tate’s next opponent will be Rousey.
“I think that Ronda now will fight Miesha Tate for the title,” White stated on SportsCenter after UFC 196 in which Tate claimed the title from Holly Holm on Saturday via a rear-naked choke in the fifth round. “That’s what’s going to happen. That’s what I said before this fight even happened.”
Dana White: ‘Ronda Rousey will now fight Miesha Tate for the title.’ https://t.co/QgXpkXP4Hk pic.twitter.com/LC2nVKqu4T
— theScore (@theScore) March 6, 2016
White revealed that Rousey did not watch the fight but he had texted her Saturday’s UFC 196 result.
“I texted Ronda, and she said, ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘Miesha just choked her unconscious.’ And she said, ‘Well, it looks like I got to get back to work.’ I don’t know what that means – if that means acting or fighting,” White said.
Ronda Rousey texted Dana White after Miesha Tate beat Holly Holm in bantamweight title. https://t.co/ocRdC61SVU pic.twitter.com/9JCc2hFBpq
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 6, 2016
Rousey and Tate’s rivalry began in 2011 when Ronda Rousey snatched the Strikeforce bantamweight title from Tate in March 2012. A rematch followed and Rousey won, defeating Tate by submission in the third round.
Tate had just made an amazing comeback in the UFC ring after she choked Holm “The Preacher’s Daughter” in the final minutes of the fifth round. Holm previously dethroned Rousey in UFC 193 in Australia with a kick on the head which put her to sleep. Holm won almost every round but got in trouble when Tate finished the fight with a rear-naked choke which rendered her unconscious.
ICYMI: @MieshaTate beats @HollyHolm to become the new women’s bantamweight champ at #UFC196. https://t.co/AhDQw7xEnL pic.twitter.com/upEEU8ZEGr
— espnW (@espnW) March 6, 2016
Tate will either fight her rival, Rousey or give Holm a rematch, but for now, she just wants to enjoy her victory.
“The right move feels like drinking a Budweiser and eating cupcakes,” Miesha Tate told the press.
“… My job as the champion is to fight the next best person, so whoever that is, I’ll fight them,” she added.