Miesha Tate’s third-round armbar submission of Julie Kedzie has made her the first in line for a shot at Ronda “Rowdy” Rousey.
In Tate versus Kedzie, there were a lot of question marks following the first two rounds. Kedzie came out swinging, literally, and kept Tate at bay with some effective striking. Ultimately, she could not stay off the mat and was eventually submitted well into the third round.
Rousey destroyed Sarah Kaufman with an armbar of her own, just 54 seconds into the first-round. There was never any doubt as to who the champion and who the challenger was in San Diego.
So why does Tate, who suffered a similar fate to Rousey back in March via armbar submission, deserve another shot to reclaim her title?
Tate weighed in on her suitability for a title shot and rematch with Rousey after her performance Saturday night (via MMAWeekly.com):
At this point, I don’t feel that my performance, I mean everyone is saying it was ‘Fight of the Night’ and everything and that’s great and I’m really happy it was an entertaining bout, but I personally am not happy with my performance. I definitely don’t think it was a contention worthy performance, Tate said.
While Tate may not agree she deserves a rematch yet, there are few other options for StrikeForce to turn to in the bantamweight division. They could conceivably convince someone like Gina Carano or Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos to drop weight to fight Rousey, but it’s more likely Tate will be the next in line to try to stop Rousey’s dominant run.
What a rematch it will be, too.
Tate, who gave Rousey the longest fight of her career, has seemingly improved her already impressive grappling ground game—as displayed in her bout against Kedzie Saturday night. Will it be enough to stop the Olympic bronze judo skills of Rousey in the cage?
That is the big question of the moment.
The Rousey train looks unstoppable at the moment and it will take the best fight of her, or anyone’s career, and perhaps a little luck for Tate to avenge her loss and regain the bantamweight title.
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