Miesha Tate is all set to make her long-awaited return to the Octagon. The former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion is scheduled to take on Yana Santos at the UFC Des Moines event, which goes down at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 3, 2025.
Ahead of the fight, Tate revisited her rivalry with fellow MMA great and former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. “Cupcake” recently suggested that she’s seeking to avenge her pair of losses to Rousey — albeit in an indirect fashion. The veteran American fighter outlined that she plans to do so by facing and beating someone “Rowdy” is quite familiar with.
What Happened Between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey?
The first fight between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey saw Rousey dethrone Tate via first-round submission to become the new Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion in March 2012. Rousey later became the inaugural UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion after the UFC acquired Strikeforce.
The UFC brought in Tate to replace an injured Cat Zingano to serve as a rival coach opposite Rousey on Season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter. Following that, the archrivals clashed in a rematch for Rousey’s UFC bantamweight belt at UFC 168 in December 2013. Tate was stopped again, this time via third-round submission.
Rousey subsequently lost her UFC title via knockout to Holly Holm in 2015 and was later knocked out by Amanda Nunes in 2016. She transitioned to professional wrestling as a WWE superstar before also departing WWE. In 2024, Rousey revealed she had stopped competing in MMA due to concussion issues and was unlikely to return to MMA or wrestling again.
Tate recently revisited their rivalry during an interview with “MMA Fighting” ahead of her upcoming fight. She indicated that she’d like to beat Yana Santos at UFC Des Moines and then compete for the UFC bantamweight title.
Currently, the UFC Women’s Bantamweight title is held by Tate’s friend Julianna Peña. Peña is scheduled to defend the title against Rousey’s former roommate and fellow Judoka, Kayla Harrison, at UFC 316 on June 7, 2025.
Tate suggested that since a potential trilogy match against Rousey is unlikely, she’d like to symbolically avenge her losses by beating Harrison. She stated:
“You know, Kayla is a very revered Judoka. She’s got very similar credentials to Ronda. And yeah, she’s her own fighter. She’s her own person. So it wouldn’t be as sweet, as vindicating, you know, those two losses to Ronda. However, it’d be a great second. And I would take that.”
Tate added:
“And I would take pride in people saying, ‘You know what? I think Miesha was right. Like, she was able to back up what she said, and she did learn a lot about judo, and she was able to beat Kayla Harrison. And likely if they ever had that third fight, she’d beat Ronda too.’”