(What a tragedy. And she was such a pretty girl, too. / Miesha Tate ‘Body Issue’ photo by Ben Watts for ESPN The Magazine)
To say that Miesha Tate is still haunted by her gnarly armbar loss to Ronda Rousey last year would be an understatement. In a recent interview with MMAFightCorner (via BleacherReport), Tate explains that suffering a second armbar loss to Ronda at their rematch at UFC 168 in December would be a suicide-worthy scenario. Figuratively speaking. Maybe.
“It’s never too early to train and practice that gameplan over and over and over, I’m going to beat it into my skull if I have to,” Tate said. “Swear to God, she’s not going to armbar me if it’s the last thing I do. I will seriously shoot myself in the face before I leave that cage if she armbars me again. It can’t happen.”
Two things…
1) I wasn’t aware that fighters were allowed to bring guns into the Octagon, following the Diaz-Cerrone Peace Accords of 2011.
2) I have no problem with this.
Tate went on to give her own explanation of why she fell prey to Rousey’s signature move, and described the Rondabar in terms that make it even more mysterious and scary:
“For one, not being too emotional. I think that was the biggest problem last time was she got inside my head and she made me really, really angry,” Tate said. “I just don’t think I feed well off of negative energy. I’d rather just be positive about it and just be happy. I love the sport, I love fighting and that to me is definitely the key to victory. Other than that I think I possess all the skills to beat her, I think I just need to calm down a little bit and not go grabbing a hold of her and letting her just launch me into an armbar again. It was just really stupid.”
As far as the gameplan, Miesha explained that Rousey’s judo and trademark move that’s stopped all seven women that she’s faced requires special training. That’s something she’s planning on focusing in on right away.
“Everyone thinks it’s an armbar, it’s not. It’s like a move of it’s own,” said Tate.
“I also need to stop the judo. I mean that’s another part of it. If she goes out there and throws me and she can’t armbar me, that’s a big part of the fight too,” said Tate. “That’s what I’m going to do from now until December 28, it’s going to be an anti-judo camp.”
Stop the judo? Dang, why hasn’t anyone ever thought of that before!
Tate is clearly fired up for revenge, but there’s a reason why Rousey is nearly a 10-1 favorite in this rematch, which was only booked out of convenience. Are you guys seeing another first-round armbar victory for the champ?