Miesha Tate likes long fights, and cake decorating
Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): I know you wrestled for four years in high school. How did you go from high school…
Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): I know you wrestled for four years in high school. How did you go from high school wrestler to full time mixed martial artist?
Miesha Tate: I discovered MMA through a roommate of mine in college. She was into karate and she found this mixed martial arts club sport and begged me to go along with her. I had no clue what it was. I didn’t even know what MMA was. I was like, “I didn’t do any kind of karate. I wrestled for a little bit, but that’s about it.” She was like, “No, no, no, there are a lot of former high school wrestlers. You will really like it. You have to come.” I went with her, and sure enough, we were learning jiu-jitsu techniques and a little bit of striking and I thought it was really cool. It all kind of snowballed from there. I then went to some fight cards with the guys I was training with and I took my first fight not too long after that. And here I am today!
Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): I watched a mini-documentary of you online and my favorite part was the story about your first amateur MMA fight against Liz Posener in 2006. Tell our readers how the fight played out.
Miesha Tate: The first round I went out there and on the judge’s scorecard I won the round. I took her down. I was still kind of in the wrestling mode. I didn’t do a lot of striking, but I controlled the first round. The second round I went out and hit her with one two, one two, and she Thai clinched me and I didn’t know how to defend it. I had only been doing standup training for about three weeks before I took that fight. I kept trying to shoot in to take her down and she caught me with two knees to the face, one of which broke my nose. It didn’t hurt when I got hit, but I heard it and it was really loud. Before I knew it there was blood everywhere.
I finished taking her down but I was dazed. She kind of slid out onto my back and tried to sink in the choke. Then she postured up and started throwing punches. I was like, “What the hell is going on here? This chick is a Muay Thai girl and she’s on my back. That’s not cool.” I started going crazy and I bucked her off. Then she fell down into guard position and I started reigning down punches as hard as I could to finish out the round.
I went back to my corner and I would’ve gone out for the third round happily but they were like, “Oh my gosh, obviously your nose is broken.” I think they were kind of shocked because they had never cornered a girl and it was an amateur fight. I think they didn’t know how I was going to handle it. Unfortunately, I lost that fight because they wouldn’t let me go back out for the third round.
Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): That is a tough debut. It is probably not the ideal debut, but you used it to sort of propel yourself forward. Did it reassure your belief that competing in MMA is what you were meant to do?
Miesha Tate: Yes, it did for sure because it didn’t deter me. I came away with a pretty shockingly severe injury and it took me a long time to recuperate from it. I was swollen for a good two weeks with full black eyes. It was my first fight and everybody was nervous. My mom and nobody really wanted me to do this. Everyone was like, “Don’t break your nose.” I think everybody jinxed me. (laughs)
I went out there and it was kind of the worst case scenario. My grandparents were all freaked out. My parents were like, “Well good thing she learned. Now she’s never going to do this again!” To me it was like, “No way can I go out like that! I have to redeem myself. I’m too competitive.” I hung in there and didn’t quit and kept fighting through the injury. I knew I had the fight instinct and not the flight instinct. I’m not the kind of person that gives up. You have to knock me out or choke me out and finish me in some way, because I’m never going to quit coming at you.
Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): Let’s fast forward to the Strikeforce Challengers 1 event. You were supposed to fight Kim Couture. Then she pulled out and it changed to Sarah Kaufman, which was a big step up in competition. How soon before the fight did they swap opponents and did you feel like you had enough time to prepare for Kaufman?
Miesha Tate: I didn’t feel like I had enough time. It was about 2 ½ weeks out that the opponent change happened. It was kind of short notice. Granted, I had been preparing for a fight, but it was just a very different style. Kim Couture is a lot taller. Kaufman is obviously way more efficient at what she does. For Kim I was training to stand. I felt like I would’ve been competitive enough in that area and I wanted to display that.
Then when I got matched up with Sarah Kaufman I felt desperate to start drilling the takedown game. I felt intimidated on my feet. I went out there. I was striking. I was hanging in there but it was obviously I was losing the striking battle. It was just so engrained in my head. By the time it clicked for me I was too desperate for the shot and I wasn’t setting it up well. It was kind of an awkward situation.
Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): You’re fighting Zoila Frausto on March 26. She’s an undefeated fighter. Describe her fighting style to me and what she brings to the table?
Miesha Tate: She claims to be a Muay Thai fighter. She likes to kick a lot which is fine by me. You don’t see a whole lot of people that kick as much as she does. She’s got a decent clinch. Her standup game is pretty solid. I think she has a little bit on the ground, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near my level. I feel like I have a world class ground game. I have a good wrestling background, awesome jiu-jitsu, and I have good standup as well. I don’t think it’s a very good matchup for her.
Derek Bolender (MMAmania.com): Outside of mixed martial arts what do you like to spend your free time doing?
Miesha Tate: There are a couple things I love doing. I watch movies. I get Redbox movies and watch them after practice. I like to cook. I actually really like cake decorating, as funny as that sounds. (laughs) My mom was always into cake decorating. She used to do it professionally and sell cakes on the side like wedding cakes. I have an artistic side to me. When I have time I like to draw. I like to play piano or music. That’s about it.
