Miesha Tate: ‘If Holly Holm had won, I guarantee you she would not be giving me an immediate rematch’

There has been a lot of talk since the UFC announced that their women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate would be fighting Amanda Nunes at UFC 200.

Lenny Fresquez, manager of former champion Holly Holm claims that Tate “chose to take a weaker opponent” in Nunes.

However, Tate’s manager responded to that claim and said that the immediate rematch against Holm was never a discussion between Tate’s team and the UFC.

Tate spoke with MMA Junkie about how Holm’s manager’s cocky attitude ended up being their downfall.

“I was told by the UFC that her management walked in there and told them that I was going to be a tuneup fight,” Tate said. “That is word-for-word what I was told.

“They didn’t do it as a favor to me. It’s not like they were, ‘You know, we really want to do this for Miesha, we’ll just give her a chance.’ No, they gave themselves a chance to have a big payday and remain the champion, and they thought I was going to be an easy fight, and it backfired. They did it for themselves because they thought they were going to win. They did not do it for my sake.

“So for me to turn around and say, ‘I’m going to do this for Holly’s sake,’ we both went in there (at UFC 196) never having fought each other before, both with an opportunity to win, and if Holly had won, I guarantee you she would not be giving me an immediate rematch. She would be looking to fight the next best person, either Ronda or someone she hadn’t fought. So when you look at it from that perspective, they can’t really (say) they did me a favor.

“I have beaten Holly, finished Holly, and now I want to fight the girl who’s next in line.”

Miesha Tate will look to defend her title for the first time on July 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada at UFC 200 against Amanda Nunes.