Miesha Tate is confident she would defeat Ronda Rousey if they were to fight again.
Rousey submitted Tate in the first round in Strikeforce as Tate lost her bantamweight title. They then rematched a year later at UFC 168 and Rousey got another submission win, but this time in the third round to defend her belt.
Although Rousey finished both the fights, Tate believes a trilogy fight would be different.
“There’s not a doubt in my mind it would be different, for sure,” Miesha Tate told said on Fight Nation on MMA on Sirius XM (via BJPENN). “I’m just so different myself, I don’t know how to explain, I just want you guys to see it on July 17. Just things that I didn’t realize and I didn’t compute before as a fighter and things I feel like I’m finally picking up at this stage in my life. I don’t know, call it maturity, maybe sitting back observing this sport, watching, and not being under the pressure to compete all the time has allowed me to kind of look at this in a more cerebral way.”
Why Miesha Tate believes it would go different is simple. She believes she is a much better fighter and her mental game is also stronger.
“I used to very much be a brawler and tough, I still have the mental toughness, I still have the fight but I feel like for the first time I’m tapping into my fight IQ and really going to go about things in a different way than I did before,” Tate said. “At least to start fights. Fights are fights, right? It’s liable to get crazy at any point. But I’m much different than I ever was before.”
Unfortunately for Tate, it’s highly unlikely a trilogy fight will happen with Rousey. Although Tate is returning on July 17, the former UFC champ is retired and has shown no interest in making a comeback.
Do you think a trilogy fight between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey would go differently?