In no way, shape or form is Miesha Tate overlooking her first bantamweight title defense vs. Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 next Saturday night.
But on the heels of three straight fight camps, “Cupcake” does want to take a break from the action.
During a conference call earlier this week, Tate stated plans to return to the Octagon in late 2016 following her bout vs. Nunes.
“I know I want to take a little time to enjoy myself,” Tate said. “I went straight from my camp with Holly, straight into Bryan (Caraway)’s camp against Aljamain Sterling and then straight into this camp, which has been awesome to keep that great momentum going.
“I’m really happy about that, but, you know, my birthday is in August, and I would like just to take a little bit of time. I think a November or December return would be reasonable.”
Tate was once again asked about the possibility of fighting arch-rival Ronda Rousey in the UFC’s debut in Madison Square Garden this November. And, like she has tried to do in several interviews over the past few weeks, the champion attempted to turn the attention to Nunes.
“Let me just stop you right there, because there is no way I’m looking past this fight with Amanda,” Tate said. “I just can’t afford to do it. I’ve been seeing that a lot of people are just losing titles quickly and focusing on things they don’t need to be. And I refuse to make that mistake. I didn’t get here by overlooking opponents.
“And Amanda is a very tough opponent. I think she’s beatable, but she is where she’s at because she’s hungry, she really wants this and she’s on a win streak.”