Miesha Tate moving to competitive grappling, possibly Fox Sports role

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate left fight fans stunned when she suddenly announced her retirement in the Octagon following her UFC 205 loss to Raquel Pennington earlier this month. The fight was a tough one for Tate, who dropped a unanimous decision, and was never able to really establish her dominance over the course of the three round fight.

The loss made it two straight for Tate, who lost the UFC women’s bantamweight championship at UFC 200 in July to Amanda Nunes when she was rocked and submitted in the very first round.

Following the loss to Pennington earlier this month, UFC cameras caught an exchange between Tate and her boyfriend, who is also her coach, Bryan Caraway, as she informed him and another cornerman that she no longer wanted to fight, and that she no longer shows up in fights.

While many wondered if the retirement was a hasty decision in the heat of the moment, Tate has stuck to her decision, and is now looking to move to competitive grappling.

She spoke to MMAJunkie:

“I love jiu-jitsu a lot, and I’m really excited to display it on it a different field,” Tate told the combat sports media at UFC Melbourne (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “It’s different when you’re fighting. You have to worry about people trying to get back up all the time, so it’s different. I think this is going to be a whole new avenue to express myself as an athlete, so I think it will be fun.”

In addition, in the wake of her retirement, Tate was praised by former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub as one of the best analysts he’s ever worked with, which led many to wonder if Tate would take an analyst role with Fox Sports 1.

She touched on the subject, saying:

“It looks like something will come to fruition with FOX at some point, so we’ll just see how that all unfolds,” Tate said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of things that I have to look forward to. I’ve got to kind of sit down and talk to my management and see exactly what’s next.”