Tate: I want Amanda to win

In 2012 Miesha Tate lost her Strikeforce women’s bantamweight championship to Ronda Rousey via dislocated elbow. A year and a half later, she challenged Rousey for the UFC title and lost again via armbar. Tate also coached opposite Rousey on The Ultimate Fighter 18.

These images fairly sum up the feelings between the pair.

Tate tremendously rebounded from that 1-3 run to win five in a row, culminating in beating Holly Holm for the UFC belt. Making the win all the sweeter, Holm had last beaten Rousey via head kick to Bolivian. However, Tate lost her first title defense to Amanda Nunes, and retired after losing a second fight in a row, to Raquel Pennington.

The highly mediagenic Tate is now transitioning into other roles in the MMA space and spoke recently with MMAjunkie about Rousey’s title challenge vs. Nunes at UFC 207 on December 30.

I guess what’s really difficult for me to decide is what we’re going to get out of Rousey, said Tate, as transcribed by Brent Brookhouse and John Morgan. Is she doing it because she wants to or is she doing it before she feels obligated? Is that knockout going to be in the back of her mind? Is she going to be punch shy?

“It’s kind of like – I remember when I went skiing for the first time, I was like 5 years old and I just blitzed down the hill. I had no fear. The first time that I wrecked really, really hard is when I realized this is actually dangerous … so you kind of wonder what has that put in the back of her mind?

I know that Amanda is a very solid fighter and she hits like a ton of bricks. She’s a very worthy opponent. It should be interesting. … I want Amanda to win. She’s a sweetheart and a good girl. I think she deserves it.