Miesha Tate continues her backlash against the UFC

Speaking to MMAFighting,com, Tate said:

“Absolutely not. I was never presented with that. I had made it clear that I wanted to take some time off after my last win over Julie Kedzie, but that doesn’t mean you don’t make an exception to the rule when something like that is presented. Clearly when I made those statements, that was before women were coming to the UFC for sure. That was before it be would an opportunity to headline. That was before it would an opportunity to make history. If they would have said, ‘Hey, you want to fight Ronda in the UFC? You want to headline a UFC card for the first fight in history for women?’ I would have been like, hell yeah. But it wasn’t offered to me.”

“That’s exactly what bothered me. It wasn’t that I didn’t get offered the fight, because I’m okay with earning the rematch. I’m okay with working my way back up there and really feeling like I deserve that position. I’m fine with that. But I’m not okay with Ronda saying that I’m basically afraid to fight her and that I turned that fight down, and that she thinks it’s funny that happened. Because it never happened. It’s not something that if the UFC had offered to me, I would ever even consider turning down.”

“I think they’re putting a little too many eggs in one basket. I mean, What happens if [Rousey] goes out there and she does lose to Liz for some reason? Then it’s kind of like, all of this that they’ve put into it is all nothing. I feel like it’s not maybe the smartest thing to just base everything solely off of Ronda, when clearly there’s more talent and I’m also right here too. I really feel like I was a big part of making history. If I’d just tapped out when Ronda got me in the armbar, it wouldn’t have been such an explosive thing. I feel like the reason she’s up for submission of the year is because of my stubbornness.”

“They think that [Rousey] is exactly what women’s MMA needs to succeed,” Tate finished. “And, I don’t know. Personally, I think I could do just fine in the same position, and it’s up to me to prove that. It’s up to me to go out there, win the fights I need to win, win the rematch, and carry the weight of the world on my shoulders for a little while. And I plan to do so. I’ve got a little bit of work cut out for me, clearly, but I’m going to take the right steps and I’m going to do it.”