Referee John McCarthy raised Miesha Tate’s hand to the sky in the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas as Bruce Buffer belted out “…and new undisputed UFC bantamweight champion of the world…” with a voice so deep it would make Barry White blush. Tate’s world as she knew it stopped. It was totally upside down. She had gone from underdog to top dog.
“It all is just a whirlwind, it’s a huge whirlwind of emotions, and it’s just an overwhelming sense of joy. Just pure bliss and joy,” Tate told Sportsnet while reminiscing about her dramatic UFC 196 victory over Holly Holm.
This is what she worked for, trained for, slept, wept, bled and prayed for.
Tate had been a champion in Strikeforce briefly fives years ago but prior to her fight with Holm her two most recent attempts at a title both ended in devastating fashion — one physical, one emotional — at the hands of her arch nemesis Ronda Rousey.
She hasn’t yet had the chance to avenge her losses to Rousey yet, but winning the UFC belt by beating Holm – the only woman to ever defeat Rousey in MMA – was satisfying in its own right.
Tate finished Holm with a rear-naked choke, a submission Tate had never won a fight with in her nine-year career. Behind on the judges’ scorecards, with less than two minutes remaining in the fifth and final round, Tate managed to drag Holm to the ground and desperately worked for the finish. She locked her right arm around Holm’s neck and cinched her left hand behind Holm’s head. There was no escaping. Rather than tapping out, Holm struggled until her body wilted.
The submission spoke to both Tate’s and Holm’s determination and desire to lay it all on the line.
It was one of the most memorable finishes in UFC history.
“Once the choke is locked in it is just biology,” Tate explained. “The way your body works, you can’t last much longer than six seconds before the carotid arteries no longer can supply blood to the brain or oxygen so you pass out. That was exceptional because [Holly] could have tapped out but she didn’t. She battled until she literally couldn’t anymore. Hats off to the girl. She went out on her shield. You have to respect that.”
Tate being humble and respectful in victory is indicative of the champion she hopes to be for years to come. However, she has never been in the position of defending a UFC championship, an entirely different beast compared to what she went through in Strikeforce.
Tate’s entire UFC career up until UFC 196 had been her keeping pace with the rest of women’s 135-pound contenders and working her way back up the ladder following stoppage losses in her first two UFC fights in 2013. In many ways, Tate is an underappreciated champion in part due to those losses. Cat Zingano, who holds a TKO victory over Tate, even said recently, “It’s weird for me to see Miesha Tate as UFC champion.”
It will be interesting to see how Tate adjusts to being the woman to beat, which to me is the most fascinating dynamic to Tate’s next step. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. How do you deal with success now that you are the champ? Because as hard as it is to become the champ, it’s even harder to stay there. Ask Holm. Ask Rousey.
Tate’s first title defence takes place at UFC 200. Not in a rematch against Holm, or in a lucrative continuation of her odyssey with Rousey, or even in a stylistically mouthwatering bout with Invicta FC featherweight champ and recent UFC debutant Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. Instead, at the most loaded pay-per-view event in the company’s history, the 29-year-old will fight Brazilian Amanda Nunes in Las Vegas at the new T-Mobile Arena. Tate is one of the marquee names on the card and she’s taking one of the biggest risks because Nunes is relatively unknown.
I sat down with Tate when she was in Toronto on one of her now-mandatory press tours to spread the gospel of the UFC. The biggest difference in being a champ rather than a challenger is the drain on your time. Dressed in heels and a pencil skirt, the Tacoma, Wash., product looked more like a CEO or world leader as opposed to a world champion cage fighter.
What I was immediately struck by is the fact that although now would be the natural period of her life where it would seemingly be okay to be selfish to ensure she takes all measures to remain champion, her thoughts are communal. When she answers questions, she leads with “we” or “us,” not “I” or “me.” Tate’s team is her biggest concern. Who needs rest? Who needs to see their family? It’s easy to forget a fighter is forged by a collection of people. MMA is a one-on-one sport but preparation is a collaborative effort.
Whenever she recounts the night she beat Holm, her speech pace quickens and her eyes widen when we talk about the reaction of her corner as she secured the victory.
“There is actually this audio and video of my cornermen coming in through the fourth and up through the fifth round until I win and you hear the advice they gave me,” Tate said. “The encouragement that they gave me, the honesty they tell me when I’m in there. And you hear when I get the choke their like ‘squeeze, squeeze’ and I’m like ‘I am, I am,’ in my mind. Then just the eruption of joy. You just hear them go crazy and it’s so emotional going through that and listening to that again and living through that again because it’s just a, just a very amazing moment.”
Being a prizefighter is a naked, cold experience. You are on your own, wearing little clothing, fighting for your life and livelihood with millions watching. There is nowhere to hide. The warmth of encouragement she gets from her inner circle is what keeps her in the moment during a fight. Bryan Caraway, Robert Follis, Jimmy Gifford, Marc Savard, Dr. John Edwards and the people at her Xtreme Couture gym are her MMA family. It’s a circle she desperately wants to remain tight because there’s more than merely increased media requests you have to worry about when you’re carrying the belt.
“I notice I have lot more new friends popping out of the woodwork,” she said with a chuckle. “I know who my tried and true friends are. And the family that supported me along the way. I’m happy to keep it real with the family and friends who supported me along the way when nobody else would. Holly Holm destroyed Ronda, who everyone thought was invincible and the rest of the world thought this was going to be an easy fight [for Holm]. My friends and family who saw me work before that truly believed in me and for that I’ll forever be grateful.”
There is no bigger supporter of Tate than Caraway. Her partner, trainer and a fellow fighter who has literally been there for her since Day 1. Caraway introduced Tate to the sport when they were both at Central Washington University and Caraway started an MMA club. Tate initially dated a different MMA fighter but after he committed suicide she abandoned the sport. It wasn’t until Caraway provided some counsel that she was persuaded to return to the sport she fell in love with. Caraway was originally tentative to date a fellow fighter but their newfound bond and close proximity was the catalyst for them to eventually fall in love.
The pair is in a great spot today, however the work/life balance wasn’t always healthy.
With a deep sigh before unloading her perspective, as if she were on a therapist’s couch, Tate looked back at that period with bewilderment and some regret.
“That was something that was difficult for some time in a younger relationship. We always knew how to separate our relationship from the gym. The problem was we’d take the gym home with us. Sometimes I felt like I was losing my boyfriend during the training camp because he had to wear the cap as coach and he was trying to do whatever he could for me. I look back at it now and I’m like poor guy. I really put him through the ringer. I really expected a lot from him.”
In 2013, Tate brought in Follis to coach alongside Caraway and the couple moved to Las Vegas to train full time at Xtreme Couture. Follis acts as a sounding board and buffer for both. The relationship in and out of the cage is a two-way street. As soon as she was done with Holm she was in Caraway’s camp as he prepared for Aljamain Sterling at UFC Fight Night 88. Caraway, also a bantamweight, beat Sterling and has won four of his last five putting him in the conversation for a title shot, something Tate tells anyone who’ll listen that he deserves.
Her favourite line of questioning was when I proposed the thought of the couple’s condo having not one but two championship belts in it as decoration and what that internal competition might breed.
“He’s exceptionally proud of me but I think he’s even more motivated now to go out and get that title. The men’s division is very thick. I’m very proud of him. He’s ranked top 10 (currently No. 4) in the world too. We must be doing something right.”
Saying she’s “doing something right” might be the understatement of the year, but it begs the follow up question: why did she choose MMA as a profession in the first place? Tate is university educated, comes from a middle class family and has won the genetic lottery. She doesn’t have to take shins to the face to make a living. She could have been paid handsomely using her brain or her beauty. So why pursue a sport that, when she started, was far less mainstream and had no women in the UFC. Furthermore, what made her keep going after her first six fights where she competed for free while living out of a 22-foot RV?
“It boils down to one word. Passion. I was passionate about it. I found a love for something. It was something that made me feel alive. It made me want to be better and stronger and it did. It made me those things. I think I have this Rocky Balboa-esque story to my story in mixed martial arts and where I came from. To go through those struggles and to sacrifice a lot makes it that much more rewarding.”
The fiscal rewards for Tate theses days are abundant as she can now afford to buy a 45-foot RV simply for recreational purposes. She’s also now in a position because of her UFC stardom where she can expand her portfolio. Like her fellow superstars, she is a brand. She hosts her own podcast called “The Miesha Tate Show,” she has dabbled in acting and her sponsor list includes Budweiser, RevLabs and E-Z-Go.
She has also done some modelling, but she has proven her personal persona and her in-cage demeanour are quite different — something that took her peers a while to get used to.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” she professed as she explained her frustration of being miscast in the sport. “That’s how I got the nickname Cupcake. People thought because I’m a female I couldn’t be tough, especially because I’m such a feminine female. I like to wear my hair long. I like to do my makeup and paint my toes. I wear skirts and dresses.
“I do all the girly stuff and people were like, ‘There is no way this girl can be tough. This girl does not belong. She’s not a fighter.’ It used to piss me off because the thing is I’m tough, I’m capable. I enjoy proving the doubters wrong,” she added with a wry smile forming in the corner of her mouth almost to indicate that she’s had the last laugh.
So does she like the nickname Cupcake? Is it condescending since she is tough?
“I love the nickname Cupcake. I get cupcakes for gifts all the time. The only better nickname is Ferrari,” she said with another laugh. “If I were getting Ferraris all the time that would be pretty good.”
Tough, driven, goofy, articulate, sweet like a cupcake yet complex like a Ferrari, all in one package. Tate really is everything you want in a UFC star.
She enters her bout with Nunes as the favourite even though she is accustomed to the role of the underdog. No matter how differently others treat her now that she’s champ she’s choosing to continue to keep the same mentality that got her here. The perennial underdog looking to her corner for support from those she loves while not looking past her opponent.