Miesha Tate reveals she was open to a bantamweight fight against Holly Holm before fight with Lauren Murphy was moved
Former UFC bantamweight champion Miesha Tate says she was ready to fight Holly Holm at bantamweight after her fight was pulled from UFC 276.
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate was set to face Lauren Murphy at this weekend’s UFC 276 event, but it was announced this past weekend that due to a positive COVID-19 test that Murphy would have to withdraw from the fight. While there was uncertainty at first whether or not Tate would remain on the card, the fight would eventually get pushed back to UFC Long Island later this month on July 16.
Miesha Tate returned to active competition last year and has gone 1-1 since her return after five years away. In her last fight, Tate dropped an unanimous decision to Ketlen Viera in a bantamweight fight, and after the fight she announced she would be dropping down to flyweight and work towards a 125-pound title shot. Her division debut was set against former flyweight title contender Lauren Murphy, but after news of her withdrawal came out, there were rumors that Tate could have possibly remained on the UFC 276 card.
This week, Tate made an appearance and revealed that before the decision was made to push the fight against Murphy back, she was open to a fight against a former opponent in an instant classic. During an appearance on Sirius XM’s Fight Nation, she revealed that she was pushing to fight Holly Holm in a bantamweight fight at UFC 276, but called herself fortunate that Lauren Murphy won’t be forced to miss a long period of time.
"I was like, 'give me Holly [Holm] at 135.'"@MieshaTate says she tried to get a new opponent for #UFC276 before rescheduling her FW debut against Lauren Murphy.
👇 Miesha's FULL convo w/ @RyanMcKinnell out now!https://t.co/BwJ23uJogL pic.twitter.com/xZ5qyMsdHC
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) June 28, 2022
“I am lucky and fortunate that Lauren is asking for two extra weeks, I could just be out a fight altogether. Most of the women are matchmade up through September, so there really wasn’t anyone to call out to. I wanted a replacement. I wanted to stay on this card [UFC 276] I absolutely wanted to stay on this card. I was even willing to fight at 135. I even said give me Holly [Holm] at 135 and they said ‘That’s crazy, she’s not going to accept that on a week’s notice’ and I don’t even know what happened to that. I said I don’t care, I want to fight on July 2nd.”
The veteran fighter would go on to add that times have changed since she was away from the sport, noting that back in the day, there would’ve been many fighters ready and willing to step-in on short notice and fight her.
“It’s different times these days, I remember back in the day, 100 girls would’ve been jumping at the opportunity to fight me on International Fight Week. Now everyone’s ‘I’m not gonna take that on a week’s notice’ so here we are, I’m not going to take that on a week’s notice.’ So here we are, we’re looking at July 16, the result will be the same, it’s just a little delayed.
Miesha Tate clearly wanted to be a part of International Fight Week, the same event she headlined against Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 where she dropped the belt to Nunes. The rematch with Holm is an interesting one as Tate had an incredible comeback victory at UFC 196 when she rallied for a fifth-round submission, winning the bantamweight title for the first time in her career. Although she doesn’t get to compete on the event she was hoping for, Tate will have an opportunity to make real noise in the flyweight division if she does what she expects to do against Lauren Murphy on July 16.
