New women’s featherweight division will not coax Miesha Tate out of retirement

In November of 2016, on the main card of the landmark UFC 205, former women’s bantamweight champion and veritable WMMA pioneer Miesha Tate gave up a decision to Raquel Pennington. Without any intention of taking away from Pennington’s win, it’s safe to say that the version of Tate we watched that night was far from the best we’d seen. Instead, she looked slow, frustrated and uninspired.

Shortly after the fight’s result was announced, Tate announced her intention to retire from MMA, which of course explained her insipid performance. Now several months removed from this retirement announcement, the former champ says her plans haven’t changed. She’s done fighting.

She explained this feeling on a recent episode of MMA Junkie Radio.

“I’m really happy in the retirement, honestly,” Tate said. “I’ve just been really enjoying myself and figuring out a little bit more about who I am beyond Miesha the fighter. It’s been a very interesting process, so I’m really enjoying that. I don’t have any plans to come back, or even any desire to.”

“Unless that drastically changes, I don’t see myself going back in there,” she continued. “It’s an all-or-none sport. It’s got to be 110 percent, or not at all for me. So unless something makes me want to get back in there like a crazy person, I won’t be.”

Not even the UFC’s introduction of a featherweight division, where Tate would have to cut much less weight, is enough to coax her back into the fold.

“I honestly would be more inclined to come back at 145 [pounds] even though I’d be really small for that division, but I’m just over the whole weight cutting thing,” she explained. “I don’t enjoy it and yeah, I used to be smaller and then because I got older I really filled out and got more muscle and all that stuff…”

Do you think we’ll ever see Miesha Tate inside the Octagon again? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/7/2017.