Coach: Tate ‘much better’ than last Rousey fight

Robert Follis coached both UFC women’s bantamweight Miesha Tate and UFC men’s bantamweight Bryan Caraway to victory at UFC Chicago. The coach appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and discussed the trilogy fight between Tate and the winner of now division champion Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia on Saturday.

Tate is now on a four-fight win streak, the latest of course a unanimous decision over Jessica Eye, and is, Follis explained, a different fighter than the one who lost to Rousey at UFC 168 back in 2013.

“[Tate]’s much better,” said Follis, as transcribed by Chuck Mindenhall for MMAFighting.com. “I mean, we’ve worked very hard at adding on a deeper level of striking. Her hands are getting better and better and better. We’re adding kicks in a little bit more. Her wrestling is getting better, and we keep continuing to work on her judo. She’s a confident professional, both her and Bryan are constantly looking to evolve their game, which showed up in these fights.

“I mean, this [Eye fight] was a fight where she went out and dominated standing up with a girl I think everybody thought should have won on the stand-up. I think we showed the skills that we’ve been working are definitely showing up in the cage, which is where you need them to.”

Some fans have said that although Tate gave Rousey her toughest fight to date, a third fight is highly unlikely to be different. This assumes of course that Rousey beats Correia at UFC 190.

“I’d say let’s fight and see,” said Follis. “That’s the great thing. She hasn’t taken years off her career in the first two fights. I mean, she beat her, she got an armbar in both those fights, but I feel like we continue to make progression. We’ve earned a title shot and that’s the spot we’re in. We feel we’re going to go in and dominate, and that’s the way you take fights.”

“We’re excited for the opportunity. I don’t really get into the talking about it. For me, it’s up to me to prepare her, let’s let the fighters go do their thing. That to me is what it’s really about. And I think that Miesha’s proved that there’s not another woman in the division that’s earned a fight with her more, and we’re looking forward to a chance to prove it again.”

Follis was asked what the strategy would be vs. Rousey

“First I’d like to see what happens with this fight (vs. Correia at UFC 190,” the coach said. “Each fight that she has I think gives more things to study and see her tendencies and what she does. I mean, she’s obviously a very talented athlete and a dangerous fighter. To say anything other than that is just silly. But I don’t think he’s unbeatable. I mean, everybody’s got a spot that they can beat, and we’re going to be looking to expose what we think are some of those weaknesses.”