Miesha Tate headlined UFC 200, but doesn't look back on the night fondly for obvious reasons.
Tate, while appearing on The MMA Hour, was quick to admit that her performance at UFC 200 was the worst of her career.
"It was a sh*tty performance," Tate admitted. "I'll be brutally honest with myself, it was terrible. Worst performance of my career, but I can't leave that looming over my head. What gives me satisfaction is I know that I'm better than that. I know that was a one-time thing, that I'm never going to let that happen again. It sucks, I'm not happy about it, but there's only thing that I can do -- get back on the horse and give it another go."
Tate also talked about the issues surrounding her before the fight.
"It was a terrible night to have an off-night, but it happens, and I'm only human," Tate said. "I'm not perfect, so I went out there and made some mistakes and got caught early, and it is what it is. One loss and one win, neither one defines me. I think it was just one of those things, you can't predict that. I could've been on a long layoff and still had the same thing happen. Sometimes, just like I said, life kind of gets in the way and you get too many things going. And it's not an excuse by any means, but it's just what happens sometimes. Sometimes you just get overloaded and you just have so much going on that it's really challenging, and there's no MMA 101 course of how to do it all. You kind of sink or swim, and sometimes it gets really hard to swim. And that's just kind of what it was. It was just a lot going on."
Tate will now fight Raquel Pennington this November at UFC 205, but she had to let go of her last performance before her training camp began.
"I think it was important that I let go of that before I went into a training camp," Tate said. "Because I didn't want that negativity hanging over my head and dragging me down in my training now. I wanted to be positive going into the next fight, so I think the time that I took for myself was necessary and I definitely think that it helped me kind of get over it, so to speak."
Tate, as was said earlier, will be fighting Pennington at UFC 205, Tate says she was shocked that she was given a bout with Pennington over some other females in the bantamweight division.
"I kind of, for some reason, was thinking (I would get an opponent) like a Cat Zingano," Tate said. "I was thinking possibly Holly, I was thinking maybe they would try to push Julianna (Pena), maybe they would try to push (Valentina) Shevchenko. But honestly, Raquel, I don't know why I wasn't thinking about her. Because really, it's a great match-up, and it makes sense, and I feel really honored honestly to have that fight because it shows that the UFC still values what I have to offer by giving me someone who's on a win streak when I just suffered a loss. They're giving me someone who's hot and credible right now, and beating girls and doing really well, making waves in the division. That's the kind of fight that I want. And I didn't ask for it, I just told them it doesn't matter who, I just would like to get back in there. The first name that came out of their mouth was Raquel, and I said perfect. No problem."
Tate does have a close relationship with her opponent and she coached her on the UFC Ultimate Fighter, which may make this fight different from some of the others in her career.
"We have trained together before. Obviously I did coach her on The Ultimate Fighter and we've had some good heart-to-hearts, and she's been a great support system for me. I've tried to be a great support system for her in various points of our careers. When she suffered that loss to Holly, I was there that night and hung out. She's a really great girl, and when I lost to Ronda, she was there. So we've been there intermittently through each other's careers and we kind of get it. But I think at the end of the day, it boils down to we both have a lot of respect for each other and we are in the same weight division, we have the same goals, and now is the time when we meet as friends in combat."
UFC 205 will be taking place on Saturday, November 12th from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York with Eddie Alvarez and Conor McGregor headlining.
