Miesha Tate announced her retirement in the octagon following her loss at UFC 205 earlier this month, a decision that’s led to outspoken Brazilian bantamweight Bethe Correia branding her as “weak” and “bi-polar.”
“She showed she’s bipolar because when the UFC didn’t want her fighting for the belt, she wanted to retire,” Correia stated during a Q&A in Brazil last week when asked about Tate’s decision to hang up her gloves. “She lost to Raquel and got herself in a bad phase, lost to Amanda, and announced her retirement. When you’re not going the way you want and you run away from it, that shows weakness.
“I’ve been through a lot of tough moments in the UFC and never wanted to retire. Quite the opposite. My fight against Ronda left a damage here, and I want to fight more, win more, to have experience, in order to have Rousey vs. Correia 2, maybe here in Sao Paulo, so it can be very different, and leave with my head up.”
Correia’s attempts to compare her situation to Tate leave a lot to be desired given that the two fighters careers have been vastly different.
The 30 year-old Tate has fought professionally 25 times over a nine year period, compiling an 18-7 record along the way, and is a former Strikeforce and UFC bantamweight champion.
By way of comparison, 33 year-old Correia’s MMA career spans only 12 fights over a four year period, so far putting together a 10-2 run in the sport.
So, Correia’s claims seem premature given that Tate has far more experience and cage-time than Correia, has bounced back from losses numerous times over the course of her career, including after two losses to Ronda Rousey.
More than anything else it seems Correia’s comments stem more from lingering bad blood between the two than anything else.
“My history with Miesha Tate is very old,” Correia said. “First, she called me out as an athlete on social media, and also said a lot of bad things about my personal life, demoralized me as an athlete, and I wanted to fight her, but our paths went different directions.
“I wanted to fight her again, but at that moment she… I even said I’d fight her for free, in any card, in her backyard, really, because I still have the things she said about me stuck in my throat, especially about my loss to Ronda. She said some bad things, but in the end I saw that her attitude, announcing her retirement, that I’m way above her.”
