What a difference five months can make. You’re in the main event in what was quite arguably the biggest fight in the history of Strikeforce. Now your headlining once again, but it is on the undercard of a channel that a majority of the public doesn’t have.
This is the position Miesha Tate is in and isn’t too thrilled about it. Tate headlines the undercard portion of Strikeforce: Rousey vs Kaufman on Saturday night as she squares off against MMA veteran Julie Kedzie. The bout can be seen on Showtime Extreme starting at 8ET/5PT.
She doesn’t get why she is on the preliminary portion of the card considering her credentials exceed some of the fighters who made the main card and feels it is a demotion.
“It’s confusing to me,” Tate told Bleacher Report. “I know I have more of a following than a few of the guys on the main card. It leaves me wondering why would they put me on the undercard versus a couple of the fights that are on there. Is it just because I’m a girl? Is it just because they don’t want to have two female fights on the main card? Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense.
“I do know that the people that matter are going to be watching and that’s matchmaker (Sean Shelby), Dana White, Lorenzo (Fertitta), my friends and family. I know their going to be paying attention. I don’t know how you would take a former world champion who has lost one fight after being on a six fight winning streak, with a huge following and put me on the undercard. It was insulting.”
Their was a lot of heat going into Tate’s loss to Ronda Rousey in March. You usually gain a measure for respect as a fighter for your opponent. In this case, more respect has been lost for Rousey in Tate’s eyes.
“She didn’t prove anything new (in the fight),” Tate stated. “I would have appreciated and would have a lot more respect for her if after the fight was done and would have said, “you know what, what’s done is done. We did a great job selling this fight.”
“If she would handled it more maturely instead of just saying, ‘whatever, I don’t feel bad about what I said,’ and continue to talk trash afterwords. I think I pretty much lost respect for her after that.”
Tate feels even with the rumblings of Cris Cyborg getting a title match with the winner of the main event that she will be the number one contender with an impressive performance over Kedzie.
“I think she (Cyborg) shouldn’t be able to just walk right in and fight for the belt,” Tate stated. “I’m not pointing any fingers at Cris, but I do know that she got suspended for illegal substance use. I don’t feel someone should be rewarded for that. I don’t think you should be able to come back from a one year layoff and get an instant title shot especially in a weight class where we all know is going to very difficult for her to make weight.”
“I think Julie Kedzie is a top ten fighter in the world,” Tate stated. “I know her record (16-10) is kind of so so. You have to realize that Julie Kedzie has fought the best females her entire career. She never backs away from a fight. it doesn’t matter if she got offered a fight two minutes or ten days before fight time. She’s always out there to fight, fought outside her weight class and a super tough girl. She’s not a chump and has a lot of experience. I think that Sean (Shelby), Dana (White) and those guys, if they’ve done any research on her know what kind of fighter she is and for me to go out there and get a dominant win means something.”
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