Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion had no problem with the referee’s stoppage in Petr Yan’s win over Jose Aldo at UFC 251 this past weekend.
Yan defeated Aldo for the vacant bantamweight title following a back-and-forth brawl that ultimately saw the Russian earn the fifth-round TKO win. “No Mercy” lived up to his nickname as he dropped Aldo in the final round and unloaded with brutal ground and pound.
Many felt referee Leon Roberts should have stopped the fight sooner as Aldo took heavy damage while not intelligently defending himself.
Tate, however, disagrees.
Tate: Fighters Know The Risks
While Tate felt the fight could have stopped sooner, she had no problem with the stoppage as a whole. She feels fighters know the risks when signing on the dotted line and would prefer to not have a fight stopped too quick.
“I am not a fan of fights being stopped too quick,” Tate said on MMA Tonight. “People are concerned about safety. My argument is, we are in a hurt business. We fight for a living. We sign on the dotted line and we know exactly what we are risking and we want to be allowed to risk it.
“… I wasn’t cringing at that stoppage. I wasn’t upset. There was maybe two times in the last 30 seconds or so where I was kind of like, ‘oh, he could stop it here.’ And the ref chose not to. And I didn’t feel upset about that because right when I thought, ‘ah, he should probably stop it,’ there was a slowdown in the action. Petr adjusted position or Jose moved. I do think Jose Aldo knew that fight was done before the ref decided to step in … but I’m not upset, I don’t think it was a horrible stoppage.”
Tate went as far as saying she would have loved to have had Roberts referee her fights any day of the week.
“We’re fighting! I would way rather have a referee who lets fighters be fighters than somebody who wants to overdo their job and stops fight soon,” she added. “For me, that’s the key. I would have that man referee my fights any day of the week.”
"We know exactly what we are risking, and we want to be allowed to risk it."
After the controversial Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo stoppage, @MieshaTate tells @RyanMcKinnell she'd let Leon Roberts referee her fight any day of the week. #UFC251 pic.twitter.com/LfSbGTrMSi
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) July 16, 2020
"We know exactly what we are risking, and we want to be allowed to risk it." 
Do you agree with Tate?