Miesha Tate is 'sure' she will fight former UFC bantamweight champion on her return run

Miesha Tate is ‘sure’ she will fight former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm on her return run.

Tate defeated Holly Holm via fifth-round submission at UFC 196 (March 2016). The performance earned Tate widespread praise, as she’d been consistently out-struck by Holm throughout the fight before rallying to secure a rear-naked choke finish. Cupcake captured the UFC women’s bantamweight title with the stoppage win over Holm.

Following this, Miesha Tate lost the title to Amanda Nunes via first-round submission at UFC 200 (July 2016). Tate was then beaten by Raquel Pennington via unanimous decision at UFC 205 (November 2016). Tate subsequently announced her retirement from the sport of MMA.

That said, earlier this year, Miesha Tate confirmed that she is indeed returning to active MMA competition. On that note, in an interview with MMA on SiriusXM, Tate opened up on a myriad of topics, with of them being a possible rematch against Holly Holm. Miesha Tate stated –

“Look, I have six fights on my (UFC) contract. I don’t know; that’s kind of my short plan, it’s like this two-year plan. I’m sure Holly will be one of those fights. But to honestly say that it’s like on my radar, that’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta fight Holly’. It’s not – Because I beat Holly. But I fully intend, right, that we will fight again. But in a perfect world, I’d like to be the champion. And she would challenge me, like be the contender, for that. Like, that would be like a dream come true for me. I think that would be the way that it could make the most sense. And it is the most appealing to me.”

🎙️"I have six fights on my contract ... I'm sure Holly will be one of those fights." -- @MieshaTate responds to Holly Holm wanting to avenge her loss and names an additional rematch she'd like as part of her comeback tour 🔊@RJcliffordMMA ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/SifZOgAbUE

— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) April 13, 2021

During a recent ESPN Q&A session with Laura Sanko, Holly Holm chimed in with her views on Miesha Tate’s MMA comeback. Holm noted that she’s more than willing to rematch Tate and then fight for a UFC title. Holm indicated that she’d love to avenge her loss to Tate and would surely accept the fight if the opportunity presents itself.

Apart from a Holly Holm rematch, Miesha Tate is also open to fighting Cat Zingano again

Miesha Tate (far left) gets hit with a knee from Cat Zingano (second from left); Miesha Tate choking out Holly Holm (right)

Miesha Tate also addressed a potential fight against former UFC women’s bantamweight title challenger and current Bellator women’s featherweight fighter, Cat Zingano.

Tate was defeated by Cat Zingano via third-round TKO at The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen Finale (April 2013). While many in the MMA community believed that the TKO stoppage was justified owing to the vicious barrage of knees, elbows and other strikes from Zingano, Miesha Tate disagreed.

In the ensuing years, Miesha Tate has criticized referee Kim Winslow for waving off the fight. Tate claims the stoppage was premature and she was intelligently defending herself. Miesha Tate said –

“I would love to have that fight back. I mean, so I don’t care what it is that makes her want to fight me; if she has to hate me, (or) if she loves me. I don’t care. I would love that fight. I mean, a chance at redemption with that really excites me.”

“It’s one of the more motivating fights for me, just to want to run it back. It was a great fight the first time. It was, you know, probably one of my favorite fights up until the point (of the stoppage) – and I blame more the referee. I don’t blame Cat. She was doing her job. I just think the ref led me to believe one thing, said, ‘As long as you’re showing me you wanna be in there, you know, I’ll allow you to continue to fight’. And I didn’t feel like that happened. So, I just felt a little cheated by the referee, not by Cat. I don’t have any bad blood towards her. So, I’m happy for her doing great things over in Bellator. And, you know, she’s a mom. She’s, you know, she’s been fantastic for this sport – So, not an ounce of bad blood or hate or anything personal on my side. But, of course, I would love to have that fight back.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)

Cat Zingano, on her part, has time and again asserted her respect for Miesha Tate as well as other women’s MMA competitors. In fact, in a recent ESPN interview, Zingano suggested that she’d love to fight Tate, Marion Reneau and Amanda Nunes again.

Although Cat Zingano has defeated all three – Tate, Reneau, and Nunes – in the past, she explained that she’d love to fight them again to see where their current standing is in the sport. Zingano is coming off a spectacular first-round submission win over Olivia Parker at Bellator 256 (April 9th, 2021).

On the other hand, Miesha Tate is set to make her comeback to the sport of MMA, as she’s scheduled to fight Marion Reneau at UFC Fight Night 192 (July 17th, 2021).

Meanwhile, Holly Holm was set to fight Julianna Pena this May but had to withdraw from the fight due to hydronephrosis. Holm is expected to recover from the health issue related to the kidneys and has reassured her fans that she intends to return to the Octagon at the earliest.