Dana White Details Argument with Miesha Tate
UFC 205, which marked the Octagon’s debut in New York City has now come and gone. The highlight of the card was undoubtedly Conor McGregor’s history making knockout of lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. Other highlights included Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson’s unforgettable five round war, which ended in a majority draw, and Yoel Romero’s thunderous knockout of former middleweight champion Chris Weidman. And then, of course, there was the retirement of women’s MMA trailblazer Miesha Tate.
Tate kicked off the stacked UFC 205 main card opposite the streaking Raquel Pennington, who she coached several years ago on The Ultimate Fighter. Though Tate has long stood out as one of the best female fighters on the planet, she was soundly outclassed by her foe in New York – on the feet and on the mat. As a result, she ultimately surrendered a unanimous decision.
This disappointing loss pushed Tate onto a two-fight skid, as her second most recent bout saw her surrender the women’s bantamweight title to Amanda Nunes. Evidently concerned that she’s no longer able to compete at the top level, Tate then decided to announce her retirment in her post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.
Shortly thereafter, Tate was encouraged by UFC President Dana White to head to the hospital to get checked out. Having retired just moments earlier, however, the former champ wasn’t keen on this idea. This led to a bit of a quarrel between the two, which White recounted at the UFC 205 post-fight press conference.
“Her and I had a little bit of a thing tonight,” White explained. “You know she was refusing to go to the hospital and I’m like ‘you’re going to the hospital’ and she’s like ‘fuck you I don’t work for you anymore’ and I was like ‘that’s a good point, but you need to go to the hospital.’ But she’s upset and she’s very emotional, but I care about Miesha a lot and she’s gonna do just fine in her life after fighting. Then I had to start begging ‘if you go to the hospital tonight I’ll get you a job doing something else, and I can be your boss again’, so she went, ‘yeah.’ She has to go, you know what I mean?”
Luckily, White and Tate were able to squash their disagreement, and it sounds as though Tate will get a desk job out of it.
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Topics:
Dana White Miesha Tate