Miesha Tate open to fighting Cris Cyborg at 140 pounds
Miesha Tate says she’s willing to move up in weight to fight Cris Cyborg at a catchweight of 140 pounds.
Former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate is open to fighting Cris Cyborg at a catchweight of 140 pounds. In an interview with The MMA Hour, Tate said she wouldn’t be fighting against Cyborg, who is arguably the best female pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC.
“When I was the champ, they told me that they would not … do a catchweight, so either she has to meet you at 135 or you have to not be the champion. So now that I’m not the champion, I technically could fight her at 140. I wouldn’t be against it. The thing is, I just feel like I have nothing to lose in that.”
Tate defeated Holly Holm at UFC 196 to win the women’s bantamweight title back in March but lost the title to Amanda Nunes in the main event of UFC 200. Nunes will now defend her belt against former champion Ronda Rousey, who makes her return to the Octagon after a year off at UFC 207. As the bantamweight title fight is set, so is Miesha Tate’s next fight as she will take on Raquel Penning at UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 12.
Cris Cyborg has gone out of her way to call out Rousey, in hopes of creating the biggest women’s superfight in MMA history, after she finally got her way into the UFC. In her first two fights in the promotion, Cyborg had quick victories over Leslie Smith and Lina Lansberg, both fights at a catchweight of 140 pounds, and both victories further extended her decade-plus long winning streak.
Cyborg has been a dominant force at featherweight (145 pounds) in other promotions for over a decade, but she has made it clear that cutting weight down to 140 is a very hard task for her to accomplish, but one she will do if she gets a top 10 opponent. A documentary released by Cyborg and her team shows just how much she struggles during the weight cutting process.
If the Cyborg-Rousey fight doesn’t happen right away, Tate has no problem stepping up for the challenge. While there haven’t been many women to challenge or compete with Cyborg, Tate feels that even if she loses, a competitive fight against Cyborg would prove a lot about herself.
“You’re fighting a girl who’s such a powerhouse and such a beast and just crushing girls, If I went in there and I beat her, or even gave her a solid run for her money, it says a lot. So I wouldn’t be opposed to doing it, but it’s not something that’s been discussed.
While she’s open to fighting Cyborg if the opportunity presented itself, Tate isn’t looking past Pennington either.
“Obviously at this point, now I have to focus on Raquel. I think she’s going to be a tough match-up. She’s a lot tougher than probably a lot of people are going to give her credit for. She’s hard to put away, she’s hard to finish, she’s going to be in it to win the whole time, so I know that I’m going to be in for a tough one.”
Tate will look to bounce back from her bantamweight title-fight loss to Nunes at UFC 200 when she faces Pennington at UFC 205 on Nov. 12.
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