Miesha Tate is on a mission to prove she can beat Ronda Rousey

The landscape of the UFC women’s bantamweight division changed greatly on November 15th at UFC 193 as Holly Holm knocked out Ronda Rousey to claim the women’s bantamweight championship. Rousey had reigned as the only women’s bantamweight champion in UFC history until she was knocked out by Holm in Australia.

In Holm’s first title defense at UFC 196, she was choked out cold by Miesha Tate in the 5th round of their co-main event scrap. With Tate now the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, many are wondering when Rousey will return from her hiatus for a trilogy fight with Tate.

At UFC 200, Tate will look to defend her bantamweight championship for the first time, and hopefully set up a trilogy fight with Rousey. She spoke to Megan Olivi to discuss the potential bout:

“I expected it. I think that Ronda has been such a presence in this sport,” Tate told UFC.com’s Megan Olivi. “People want to know how she’s going to come back from such a devastating loss — if she’s going to come back. And our names are forever intertwined. Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate will forever go down in history as one of the best rivalries in women’s mixed martial arts.”

“I still get people asking me to this day, ‘Is that real, do you really not like each other?’ Yeah, it’s real, we really don’t like each other. But you know what? I have a tremendous amount of respect for her. As an athlete, I think she’s one of the greatest of all time.”

“I feel like a third fight with her just needs to happen, for myself. Because I know that I can beat her,” Tate said. “And I want to prove that to myself, and I want to prove that to the world. It’s just something that’s on my bucket list. I think she’ll come back — I don’t know when. I hope that we can fight each other down the road because I want to prove to the world I can beat Ronda Rousey.”

Four years after the pair’s first meeting under the Strikeforce banner, could Tate be on a collision course with destiny that sees her finally claim a victory over Rousey in a trilogy fight?