Despite a long-running and highly marketable rivalry with Miesha Tate, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has said that she would prefer to meet Tate’s forthcoming opponent, Cat Zingano, in her next match.
Zingano and Tate are due to face each other for the No. 1 contender’s spot at the The Ultimate Fighter season 17 finale on April 13 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The winner of that fight will go on to coach alongside Rousey in a separate season of TUF—the first ever to feature female fighters in the show.
During last Friday’s edition of Inside MMA, Rousey said (via MMA Mania):
I’ve had my eye on Cat for a while. She is one of the only other undefeated 135ers at the moment and so I’m very interested to see how that fight goes. I think it would be nice to have Cat win and just to have another name that’s kind of well known within the girls’ ranks.
Zingano, though undefeated, is still a virtual unknown in the sport. Tate, on the other hand, was making waves in women’s MMA long before Rousey, culminating in a 2011 win against Dutch fighter Marloes Coenen. That win secured her Strikeforce’s women’s bantamweight title, a title which was ripped from her in her very next match by Rousey following a first-round armbar submission win.
The rivalry between Tate and Rousey during the build-up to that match grew deep and personal, eclipsed only by Rousey’s ongoing blood feud against Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos.
Following her loss, Tate has been clamouring for a rematch against Rousey, promising to “rip her face off” in recent comments (via BJPenn.com).
That fight will certainly be a lot easier for the UFC to sell, particularly for one of its nascent women’s events.
The next season of TUF—due to start filming later this year—will also be the first to feature a co-ed house, with both female and male 135-pounders looking to win the reality show.
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