Miesha Tate compares ONE Championship to the UFC after ‘minor league’ comments
After Sage Northcutt was knocked out in 29-seconds in his ONE Championship debut at ONE Championship: Enter the Dragon, Deadspin titled an article calling it minor leagues. However, former UFC fighter and now ONE vice-president Miesha Tate doesn’t agree with the minor league claim. Rather, she knows just how talented ONE fighters are and even went as far to compare the UFC to the Asian-based promotion.
“Definitely not minor league,” Tate responded on MMA on SiriusXM. “It is just not very well known yet in the states but I think that’s changing. To say ‘minor league,’ I mean do we have to draw the comparisons? Right now, ONE Championship is 3-1 in our favor if you want to talk about athletes trading.
“Look, everybody knows the UFC is the brand to compete with right now. Especially in the Western market, not so much Asia. We have four athletes so far that have either come from the UFC or went to the UFC, one of which (Ben Askren) went over and won controversially. We have Eddie Alvarez and Sage losing and then Demetrious [Johnson]. Okay, Demetrious Johnson has been the most dominant and pound-for-pound world champion in UFC history. He barely lost to an Olympic gold medalist. Asked to be released – went over to ONE Championship and had an extremely close first round in his debut and then he got the submission in the second round. But he is one of the best to ever to do it.
“If you want to talk about minor league, the athletes there are far from minor league,” she continued. “We have 130 world champions on our roster, they are badass. I don’t know what else to say. Watch it. If you think it is minor league, if you want to be entertained, watch ONE Championship. We have a 70 percent finish rate. 40 percent is average here in the Western market. So just tune in. Your mind will be changed very quickly.”
Ultimately, ONE Championship is the premier MMA promotion in Asia, and as Miesha Tate says, it is definitely not minor leagues.
