Late rally helps Miesha Tate past Liz Carmouche in UFC on FOX co-main event
It wasn't long ago when Liz Carmouche and Miesha Tate were threatening to win the UFC women's bantamweight title. At Saturday night's UFC on FOX event however, both fighters could not be concerned with reaching the sport's heights. Instead, they were in simple need of a win.
They fought like it.
The top 10's fought fiercely for 15 minutes, but Tate's late rush was too much for Carmouche, as she took a unanimous decision in the night's co-main event by a trio of 29-28 scores.
The action at Orlando's Amway Center was heavy on grappling, with Carmouche managing six takedowns in the opening two rounds. After a bit of a lethargic start, Tate started coming on around midway through the second.
For the second frame, she out-landed Carmouche in significant strikes 11-4, according to FightMetric. But her third was easily the most dominant round of the fight. She finally scored a takedown of her own and spent the entire round putting Carmouche in various trouble. She scored with several ground strikes after flattening her out, and came close to finishing with a rear naked choke. Carmouche bravely fought it off but still fell on points.
Tate, still ranked No. 3 in the latest poll, scored her first UFC win, moving to 14-5. She'd lost in her first two tries, to Cat Zingano and Ronda Rousey, respectively.
Carmouche dropped to 9-5.
