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Watch: Miesha Tate dominates Julia Avila, picks up late submission victory at UFC Austin

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, December 2, 2023, for UFC Austin, going down live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

Headlining the event is a lightweight affair between a pair of top contenders in no. 4 ranked Beneil Dariush (22-5-1) and no. 8 ranked Arman Tsarukyan (20-3).

Co-headlining the event was also a lightweight encounter, this one coming between no. 12 ranked Jalin Turner (13-7) and no. 13 ranked Bobby Green (31-14-1).

Headlining the preliminary card tonight, following back-to-back slam KO finishes by Drakkar Klose and Cody Brundage, was a bantamweight showcase between former Strikeforce & UFC champion Miesha Tate (20-9) and no. 13 ranked Julia Avila (9-3).

Following victory in her return fight over Marion Reneau in 2021, which was her first fight in nearly five years, Tate had since lost her last two-straight coming in. Avila on the other hand was coming into the bout off a submission victory over Roger Gracie BJJ black belt Julija Stoliarenko.

Continue reading to see how our preliminary main event of the evening went down:

Official Result: Miesha Tate def. Julia Avila via submission (neck crank) at 1:15 of round three

Tate opens up the bout with a series of jabs in order to get into Avila’s range, taking her down shortly thereafter. Tate absolutely mauls Avila from here, mounting her before taking her back, searching for the rear naked choke submission throughout the remainder of round one.

Tate also lands some pretty vicious ground-and-pound while she has the back of Avila, handily securing a 10-8 round by the time the first five minutes was over.

Round two was quite similar, Tate securing the early takedown and remaining on top until the bell sounds.

Tate secures a beautifully performed trip takedown to begin round three and again is able to take Avila’s back. After getting her face cranked for what seemed like the hundredth time, Avila taps to the pressure early on in the third and final round.

This looked like a prime Miesha Tate; she fought with a different, violent energy tonight and it was great to see. She becomes the first woman to ever submit BJJ brown belt Julia Avila, and just like her return fight over two years ago, she picks up a third-round finish tonight at UFC Austin.

Click here to view finish.

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Brady Ordway
I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!