There’s a fine line between the time to think and the time to go for Miesha Tate.
With her UFC Fight Night co-main event bout with Liz Carmouche on the line, the third round proved to be “go time.”
Tate scored with her first takedowns of the match in the opening minute of the final round and controlled Carmouche’s back, good enough to edge out a unanimous decision. All three judges scored the fight 29-28 at the Amway Center on Saturday night.
“I was really going through a mental hurdle, thinking, ‘Am I cursed? Can I not win a UFC fight?’” said Tate, during the post-fight show on FOX Sports 2. “Now, I’m over that hurdle.”
Tate landed 82 total strikes and controlled the latter stages of the fight with her wrestling, nearly securing a rear-naked choke on Carmouche.
“I just decided to start wrestling because I needed to turn it around,” she said. “The crowd got me to pick up the momentum between rounds.
“Liz is so tough, I think (the choke) would have put away anybody else in the division. But she was going out before she was tapping out.”
Tate mentioned a couple of possible fights for her next bout: one of them a rematch from Strikeforce, the other against a current non-UFC opponent. And no, it wasn’t Rousey and Cris Cyborg.
“I think Sarah Kaufman would be a great fight. I lost to her back in Strikeforce,” she said. “And the boxing girl (Holly Holm). I think she needs to come over to the uFC. She has a lot of hype and is she wants to climb her way to the top, I would be a good start.”
Agencies/Canadajournal