It’s like an episode of Mean Girls in the UFC women’s bantamweight division now that Cat Zingano and Ronda Rousey have officially teamed up against Miesha Tate.
Recently, the two UFC stars had a little bit of fun at Tate’s expense in a brief Twitter exchange. Even Zingano‘s husband, Mauricio Zingano, joined in on the conversation.
There are certainly no surprises with any shared animosity between Rousey and Tate, who have been bitter rivals for years. In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Rousey compared her rivalry with Tate to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
Zingano, on the other hand, has generally stayed out of the spotlight when it comes to social media drama. There wasn’t much in the way of pre-fight trash talk leading up to her No. 1 contender’s bout with Tate back in April.
Why would she take verbal swipes at Tate now?
Perhaps Zingano harbors a bit of resentment towards Tate for taking her place as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter Season 18.
She defeated Tate in her UFC debut to earn the coveted coaching position and a shot at Rousey‘s UFC title, but she was forced to relinquish her coaching duties and title shot after tearing her ACL and meniscus during training.
With Zingano sidelined for six to nine months, Tate was offered an opportunity to step in as a late replacement as both a coach and No. 1 contender.
If not resentment, some will look back at the alleged elbow incident involving Zingano and Tate’s boyfriend, Bryan Caraway. According to Zingano, Caraway struck her in the back of the head with an elbow while walking past her backstage at the weigh-ins for The Ultimate Fighter 17 finale. She claimed that Caraway “smiled” after the alleged incident and that he and Miesha were “both in on it.”
Whatever the case may be, Tate is baffled by Zingano‘s remarks. Instead of pouring gasoline on the fire, she took the high road in wishing Zingano well in her recovery and encouraging the rest of Twitter to do the same.
Did Zingano and her husband cross the line with their comments, or is the situation being blown out of proportion?
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