Miesha Tate won’t be getting her rematch with archrival Ronda Rousey.
In a brutal fight that went all over the Octagon, undefeated grappling specialist Cat Zingano upset Tate in a thrilling bout at the TUF 17 finale in Las Vegas, stamping her ticket for a coaching spot on Season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter.
Zingano’s UFC debut ended in a spectacular knockout finish, as the new title contender finished Tate with knee strikes against the cage, dropping the former Strikeforce champion in the third round.
“I can’t wait,” Zingano said when asked about her title shot and TUF 18 coaching spot. “Me and [Rousey], we’re going to rumble.”
As UFC president Dana White noted after the fight, TUF 18 will be moving to Fox Sports 1, like much of the UFC’s programming on FX and Fuel TV.
In addition to establishing a challenger for Rousey’s title, Zingano vs. Tate was just the second women’s bout in UFC history.
It was also the first time that Tate, a 17-fight veteran in the MMA circuit, had been stopped by knockout since her second professional bout.
Zingano improves to an impressive 8-0 winning streak in her own MMA career, with her biggest wins coming against Tate, Japanese veteran Takayo Hashi and 25-fight women’s MMA standout Carina Damm.
Rousey and Zingano will both coach male and female bantamweights on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter in a historic change for the long-running reality TV show, which has only included male competitors in each season so far.
McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist. His work has appeared in NVision, PC World, Macworld, GamePro, 1UP, MMA Mania & The L.A. Times.
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