Tate: I was blessed to have Rousey as a rival

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champions Ronda Rousey and Miesha do not send each other Christmas cards. They fought twice, once in Strikeforce, once in the UFC. Each was challenger once, and champion once, but both fights ended identically, via armbar, for Rousey. Before, during, and afer the fights, there was heat.

Perhaps images explain the relationship better than words.

Tate is now officially retired, and Rousey unofficially. In an interview with Fernanda Prates for MMAjunkie, Tate recalled the relationship in a largely positive light.

In hindsight, I definitely feel like it was a good thing, said Tate. I feel like I was blessed to have a rival like Ronda Rousey. Because, without the two of us, there wasn’t enough. She wasn’t enough by herself, and I wasn’t enough, definitely, by myself.

It was the two of us together, our fight in Strikeforce, that made Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta say, ‘Wow, OK, maybe the UFC can have a women’s division, because these two were competitive.’

I think it was her and my fight together that was so close. It was back-and-forth, and there was lots of action. She would almost catch me and then I’d have her back. It was very competitive, and even at the end I refused to tap. I let her literally snap my arm in half. That was my choice. I got put in the armbar; that wasn’t my choice. But to let it literally fold backwards was definitely my choice.

That was because I’m so stubborn, and I had a lot of heart and desire, and I didn’t want to give up. And I think all of those facts together are a big part of the reason why the women’s division is here today. And why we actually have four women’s divisions. It started because that fight was so close and contested. It was a good fight. I can look at it objectively and say it was a very good fight.

If Tate ever returned to the Octagon, there is only one fighter she wants to face – a trilogy bout with Rousey.

That was the fight that I was hopefully working toward, and it didn’t come to fruition again. But it almost did, said Tate. When Holly Holm fought Ronda Rousey, that was actually supposed to be my fight. I was preparing for that, and it didn’t work out for me, but it did for Holly. And obviously all of that unfolded, and I beat Holly, and it is what it is. But I was ready and prepared in my mind that a third fight with Ronda Rousey was going to happen.

So it’s kind of always something that just stuck with me, that it was meant to happen. At this point, I highly doubt that can ever come to fruition. I know that she’s engaged to Travis, and she probably wants to start a family. Who knows if she wants to return? And I certainly have no desire to want to return.

We’re just completely different people. She is who she is, I am who I am. I doubt that we’ll ever probably see eye-to-eye on much. And that’s OK. You don’t have to like everyone. There’s billions and billions of people on this planet. I don’t have to like every single one of them.

I’m perfectly OK with not liking Ronda Rousey as a person. I respect her tremendously as an athlete. I think she’s great. As a person, not so much. We’re not going to be having coffee at Starbucks any time soon.

We just never, never, never got along. Who’s to say if it had been under completely different circumstances. Maybe if we had been teammates or trained together – maybe. But that’s long gone. That’s never going to happen.