Miesha Tate was on a mini media tour yesterday to promote her upcoming fight with Raquel Pennington at UFC 205, but her old rival Ronda Rousey was also a big topic of conversation.
Earlier this week Rousey indicated that her days in the sport were numbered, stating that her upcoming title fight with Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 will be one of her last, and Tate feels the fact she has one eye on retirement could be to her detriment.
”The only thing I can say is that I question how much she really wants to be doing this,” Tate said during a UFC 205 media lunch. “And I can say that if you don’t really want to do it, then it’s going to affect your ability to train and push that extra bit in training and in practice. If you don’t really want to do it, if you don’t really want to be there – and I’m not seeing she does or doesn’t, so I can’t say that – but I can say that if your heart’s not really into it, it’s kind of a dangerous sport to play with in that sense.”
That being said, Tate is still eager to fight her old foe one last time, having come up short against her in both the Strikeforce and UFC promotions in the past.
“I have more of a sense of urgency to want to fight Ronda because I don’t know when she’s … going to leave this sport. I think Amanda will be here for some time.”