Miesha Tate shuts down Rin Nakai, calls for rematch with Cat Zingano
Miesha Tate traveled thousands of miles to Japan to face undefeated prospect Rin Nakai and while she came away with the victory, it's hard to tell how much it propelled her forward in the women's bantamweight division.
Tate has been working tirelessly in Las Vegas with her new head coach Robert Follis to improve upon her striking and she showed that off as much as she could against Nakai, who was resigned to desperately work for the clinch to take the fight to the ground.
Tate held a significant height and reach advantage over Nakai and she nailed her Japanese counterpart with several lead jabs to open the fight, while stuffing the takedown with a knee straight to the face. Nakai seemed tentative throughout the first round, but seemed to get timing down better in rounds two and three while still struggling to pull Tate to the mat.
While she's trained primarily as a grappler, Tate wanted this fight on the feet and she kept it there as best she could while Nakai clung to her every move just hoping to get the fight to the floor.
"It's something that's still new to me being a wrestler," Tate said of her striking. "I'm working on it and I think I did much better tonight."
By the end of the third round, Tate was clearly the winner although given Nakai's awkward performance it was hard to rate what the win would really mean for her after the fight was over. The judges returned scores of 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 all for Tate, who wins by unanimous decision picking up her second victory in a row.
Following the win, Tate once again stated her preference for her next fight in the Octagon in a rematch of a bout she still believes was stopped too early.
"Eventually, I want that rematch with Cat Zingano," Tate said. "She's back in the game now and I feel like I have unfinished business there."
Zingano is matched up with Amanda Nunes at UFC 178 next weekend and with a win she will likely move on to fight women's champion Ronda Rousey for her next bout. Tate could instead draw a rematch with former Strikeforce women's champion Sarah Kaufman or potentially face another top five fighter like Alexis Davis instead.
