UFC woman’s bantamweight No.1 contender Miesha Tate is still smarting over the fact that she was told she’d be getting another title shot against Ronda Rousey later this year only for the UFC to then give the opportunity to Holly Holm instead without telling her first, and it’s led to a breakdown in the level of trust she has with the promotion.
“I think more things are going to have to be contractually agreed upon, not verbally,” Tate says in an interview with Ground and Pound TV. “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.”
Rumors suggest that the UFC want Tate to fight Amanda Nunes next, but it seems that the 29 year-old isn’t as enthused by that prospect.
“I’m not in a position where I feel like I need to be pushed around and, ‘Oh, you take this fight, take that fight.’ It makes no sense to me why I’m not the champion and yet I’m fighting all the No. 1 contenders. Amanda Nunes is ranked No. 4 and Holm is ranked No. 8.
“What is wrong with that picture? I’m not the champ and I’m fighting better girls than the champion is fighting and I’m not getting paid what the champion is getting paid. It’s the champion’s job to fight the best girls in the world. When I’m the champion, we’ll talk.”
Tate has a point and she remains one of the most popular female fighters in the UFC’s roster, so it’d make sense to try to make amends with the 29 year-old before the rift between them grows any further, but the promotion tends not to like it when fighters speak out against them like this, so it remains to be seen how this will all play out.
