Tate: I would feel the same way Diaz did
Miesha Tate: “I remember when I threatened retirement because I was so pissed off that they had promised that I would fight Ronda Rousey and then they ended up switching that out and having Holly Holm but they didn’t tell me.”
The return of Nate Diaz after two years, vs. Dustin Poirier, was announced at the 25th anniversary press conference in Los Angeles. But that news was eclipsed within moments when it was announced that Kabib Nurmagomedov would be defending his lightweight title vs. Conor McGregor. Diaz was not impressed, and walked out, vowing to not fight.
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate appeared on Sirius XM Fight Nation, and empathized.
I would feel the same way as Nate does, said Tate, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. Nate has a different personality than I do, he’s expressive in a different way, but of course [I would be mad]. I remember when I threatened retirement because I was so pissed off that they had promised that I would fight Ronda and then they ended up switching that out and having Holly [Holm] but they didn’t tell me. It’s the same thing that happened to Nate, essentially, it’s just that Nate was in front of everybody. I was pissed too, believe me.
I was mad but they don’t care. They know that they have a strong arm in a lot of this and it doesn’t really matter. Or if they do care, it’s not enough. Like, ‘I’m sorry but this is what you have to do for business.’ You can’t really argue with them. They’re the ones who are gonna make the final decision, so what can you do? What can Nate do?
For me it was a whirlwind of emotions, just trying to decide what I even wanted to do next because I felt like it was so unfair. Then it was just coming to terms with, ‘Well, life’s not fair. What do you want to do about it? Are you ready to retire now or not?’ And the truth was I wasn’t ready to retire at that time. Obviously, I still went on to fight Jessica Eye after that and went on to win the title against Holly later, so I wasn’t ready to retire but it was just the frustration.
Having a talk with Dana White helps but it still stings because he’s not the one to have a filter on. The conversation was like, ‘Yeah, but you’re not Ronda Rousey.’
It’s part of just recognizing that. I have a different value than Ronda and hers is what it is and mine is what it is so I have to continue to work to build mine even more. What else can I do? Get back to the grind. You just try to leverage yourself as much as you can but there’s a point where you don’t have the leverage. You don’t have the final leverage, the UFC does.
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