The latest and biggest hype in Women’s MMA is the rivalry between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey. The two will touch gloves as the Strikforce main event in Columbus, Ohio on March 3. Rousey called out and has challenged Tate for her bantamweight title immediately after her last fight against Julia Budd on Nov. 11 in which she won by first round arm bar.
As a matter of fact, Rousey has a 4-0 professional record and has won all of these fights in less than a minute by her now infamous arsenal of arm bar submissions. Since her professional debut into MMA in March of 2011, She has defeated Ediane Gomes in 25 seconds, Charmaine Tweet in 49 seconds, Sarah D’Alelios in less than an minute and Julia Budd on Nov. 11 in the first round. She immediately called out and challenged Miesha Tate for her current bantamweight title.
Rousey’s amateur record is also undefeated with an added quality of being an Olympic Judo Medalist. At age 17 Ronda followed her mother’s footsteps in Judo and was qualified for the 2004 Olympic games, being the youngest athlete in the games. In 2004 she won a gold medal at World Junior Judo Championship. In 2006 Rousey brought home another bronze medal and became the first American to win an Olympic medal in Women’s Judo since it’s origination in the games in 1992. Rousey’s resume of Olympic and Judo Acknowledgments is long including the latest accolade of being named 2011 Female fighter of the year, Female Featherweight of the Year, and Female Newcomer of the Year. This newcomer has surly entered the scene with a bang, and some very big words.
Miesha Tate currently holds the Bantamweight Title and stands to defend it in the March 3 showdown. With a current record of 12-2 Tate finds her foundation to be a strong background in wrestling. Her wrestling roots go back to joining the boy’s high school wrestling team, winning the women’s state championship and then moving to national level at the World Team Trials. Tate then joined an MMA club at Central Washington University. She held a 5-1 amateur record before turning Professional with her MMA debut in 2007. Tate’s last 6 fights stand undefeated which was a great turn around from her previous loss in which Sarah Kaufmann stripped her belt away. In all of her fights since then she has dominated with a mixed means of decisions, submissions and Knockouts. Finally in July of 2011 Tate reclaimed her belt with a victory over Marloes Coenen by submission through arm triangle choke.
Tate’s original problem with the match up of the fight was that she felt Sarah Kaufmann had the rightful entitlement as the next standing challenger, but Rousey’s “trash talk”, call-outs and good looks got the job done. This very well may have set up that fight for means of marketability, fan requests, and a way to build exposure of Women in MMA. In an interview with Ariel Halwani, Rousey says the fight was on from the second she called Tate out during her last victory. She also says Tate is aligning more of her opinions now with the reasoning behind all of Ronda’s hype. Strikeforce is marketing well for this highly anticipated main event. Just look at the hot new fight promo video released by Showtime. So I suppose we should all agree there that us ladies sometimes do have to use a pretty face and some confident talk to take us places. Also in the interview, Rousey responds to Tate’s comments of calling her a “one-trick pony” by saying that Tate doesn’t watch enough footage and although she won quickly in all her fights by arm bar, it was from different take-downs, entries and positioning in each fight.
Rousey was raised by a Doctor of Psychology and openly announces that she tries to play mind games with Tate and believes she is under her skin enough to prevent Tate from even having confidence to make eye contact. Judging myself from the recently released “stare-down” promo picture of the ladies it certainly doesn’t look like Tate is “psychologically disturbed” by Rousey’s strange stare-downs and psychological tactics.
Tate also states her side of things in an interview with MMA Weekly saying that she is seeing the productivity of hyping this fight although she still thinks Kaufmann was rightfully next in line. She wants to build fights that fans want to see the most. Tate does not deny that Rousey will be a challenge and a tough opponent, but she is not her favorite person by any means and I see the fire in her eyes when she says that. Tate promises that Ronda will get what she came for and she isn’t going to like it and this fight will last more than a minute.
I do believe that the women do need this to be a big successfully entertaining fight especially after the loss of Cyborg and Carano. I know it is a great respect and honor to bring home Olympic medals, but I also know the rules, discipline, and endurance is not the same in MMA. Due to the backgrounds of both ladies I feel it will be an intense and incredible battle. I do have to put my money on Miesha Tate though because of a few reasons. First, her experience shows many techniques and methods, wins, losses, and lessons. Second, She tends to be reserved and quiet most times… those are the ones who mean business and are full of surprises. They believe in action not “trash talk”. Third, Ronda Rousey has never been punched in the face within a cage, so I honestly question if she has true “fight” or if she can really handle a good strike to her pretty mouth. I wonder if she would talk so much after a busted lip.
I call Tate on this card. I guess we will soon find out on Showtime March 3 as the Main Event of Strikeforce for the evening. I am very curious as to what the other members of MMA Nation think of the outcome of this heated rivalry.
Sources:
Ronda Rousey: Miesha Tate Wont Even Make Eye Contact With Me By: Ariel Helwani
Meisha Tate: Ronda’s Gonna Get What She Asked For (Video) By: www.MMAWeekly.com Staff