https://esportsinsider.com/2025/06/miesha-tate-exclusive-interview
Esports Insider: How are you feeling, first of all?
Miesha Tate: Iâm feeling good. Iâm back to living a normal life again, so to speak. Itâs weird as an athlete, thereâs a lot of ebb and flow. When Iâm in a training camp and Iâm grinding and I donât clean my own house, I donât do the dishes. I barely live.
I am a fighter, and thatâs what I am in that moment. And then itâs like this weird vortex. Then I go through the fight, and then you get a week off and then start training again, but then you go right back into normal life. So itâs almost like Iâm always playing catch-up in either area.
ESI: Have you ever played the UFC games?
Miesha Tate: Oh, I have played the games. Of course I played myself and try not to get myself beat up.
Iâm not the worldâs best video game player. I think I fight better than I play video games, but I have played them. As far as my children, they have not. But my son, I think heâs destined to be a bit of a gamer. He loves playing games. He plays this robot game now. We donât have any of those kinds of video games in the house yet because I think it would be like pulling teeth, trying to get him off of them. But, at some point, Iâm sure Iâll introduce it and I bet you heâd think itâd be pretty cool if he gets to play Mommy.
ESI: What did you make of your 4-5 rating on UFC 5?
Miesha Tate: I feel like thatâs fair. I think Iâve been doing this for such a long time, itâs kind of like the Energizer Bunny at this point. I just kind of keep going and doing my best to level up. But yeah, I think thatâs a fair rating.
Thereâs some areas that I think that I excel in more. Maybe I could have given myself a little bit more than a four in grappling. I think Iâm pretty talented once I get people on the ground. But maybe theyâre including that getting people on the ground sometimes is hard, getting people down, especially people when they wanna run away. You gotta try to get a hold of them before you can take them where you want to.
ESI: I saw you did a poll on your Instagram, asking fans whether you should return to the octagon or walk awayâŚHave you checked the updates on the votes?
Miesha Tate: I did actually, just before this interview, I checked that and it seems like the majority of people would like to see me fight again. Some people were voting and saying we support you either way. And then there was a small 25%, I think, that feel Iâve done enough and should retire. But it seems like most people wanna see me fight again.
ESI: Have you been in touch with Dana or anyone from the organization since your last fight?
Miesha Tate: Both Dana and Hunter reached out to me to tell me what a great fight my last fight was. I didnât walk away victorious. But, my goal at this point is to put on exciting fights and to push a pace and Iâve already done it all.
Iâm really not fearful of going out there and laying everything that I have out on the line and not getting a win, but still putting on a great performance, because that is a win for me. Just trying to figure out how to be my best is a win. I donât need to have any other further labels at this point. Itâs just about going out there and just being a badass.
ESI: Youâll fight anyone and when you go out there, you always give it your all! How did you come out of your last fight?
Miesha Tate: Yeah thatâs how I am. This last fight of mine, I think it was exciting. But I was coming off of a year-plus layoff, not able to really train, post-surgery.
So it was a weird fight for me, just being this latter part of my career and being out for so long. I canât say that Iâve really ever experienced such a long layoff and not be able to train on the mats, not be able to grapple, not be able to wrestle for such an extended period of time. So, I think it did affect my performance.
I try to tell myself that it wouldnât and of course, you try to tell yourself that for the fight, but in hindsight I think the timing was a little bit off. These things were a little bit rusty. But now that Iâm healthy and Iâve proven to myself that Iâm able to even get back in there and do it again, I think that I can just continue to build some momentum and hopefully, whether itâs another fight or two, we go out with a bang.
ESI: You had some constructive surgery, and you came back from that and put on a show. You never had any injuries coming out of the last fightâŚHow was the recovery?
Miesha Tate: I didnât get any injuries from that fight. I came out really healthy and it was a mental hurdle. The body follows the mind, and at points, I did not think that I was going to be able to fight again.
I remember in the recovery process things were just slow and I donât think it was a plus success of a surgery. But we did it, and I proved to myself that I could get back in there and compete again. So now that that mental hurdle is over, I feel like I could just focus on trying to be my best again, as opposed to just getting back in there.
Like, the goals for that fight was just to fight again and to not have a boring fight. Push the pace, donât be slow, donât be ageing out of this sport. I had to keep up. I wanted to show my value and my worth and my excitement. And it was funny, I saw one of the fans comment, because Jeremy Stevens fought right after me, and both were pretty exciting fights. And they said, âman, can we take it back to 2016?â Miesha Tate and Jeremy Stevens were kind of the face of it all and people miss that era of fighting. I wanna continue to bring that with me into the octagon.
ESI: Thereâs been some chatter about you being one of the next in line to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, which Iâm sure would be a great honour for you. But do you feel like thatâs kind of something you donât really wan tothink about right now? Because youâre still so active and looking to fight again?
Miesha Tate: I think a lot of people have gone into the Hall of Fame and then still fought. So I guess for me, itâs whenever it comes, Iâm not in a hurry for it.
Itâs not an accolade that Iâm in a rush to receive. But I do look forward to the moment and hopefully it will be something thatâs in my future because thatâs just a great thing. Like when I go and I watch people being inducted, I remember watching Jose Aldo and Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Thereâs a number of fighters and their speeches, that moment of getting honoured is definitely a big accomplishment. So itâs something I look forward to, but I donât have any desire for it to be soon or for it to be late. Iâm gonna just keep doing me, Iâm gonna keep being the best mom that I can.
Iâm gonna keep being the best fighter that I can. And whenever it comes, if it comes, then thatâd be great.
ESI: You said you donât want to fight Julianna Pena â except if itâs for the title. She lost her title this weekend to Kayla Harrison this weekend so would you be interested in fighting her?
Miesha Tate: Well, Iâm sure people are gonna think that my answer to this is ridiculous because Iâm not in contention by any means, but of course I would love a fight with Kayla.
I understand that Iâm still far off from being able to say that Iâm in a contender position, but with that being said, if they offered me that fight tomorrow, even if Kayla wasnât the champion, I would love to test myself with this style of fighter. I was a little frustrated in this last fight with Yana (Santos) just because it was clear she really wanted to stay away the whole time. And itâs hard to make an exciting fight when somebody wants to stay away. And itâs also hard to implement the game plan.
She won, and thatâs fine. But, I love fighting people who just want to crash into each other, and they just wanna bang and they wanna fight. And Kayla is definitely that person. I donât see her taking a single step backwards, and I donât see myself taking a step backwards.
So itâs either going to be fists of leather in each otherâs face or Iâm gonna have to show that I have improved tremendously on my wrestling, jiu jitsu and grappling defense. Itâs something I worked on continuously since the losses to Ronda (Rousey). So it would be exciting for me to ever get that opportunity. Weâll see if I can make it happen.
ESI: Next year will be 10 years since you made Holly tap and you became UFC Bantamweight champion. What are your memories of that night?
Miesha Tate: That was one of the most incredible moments in my entire career. Choking out Holly Holm in the fifth round when Iâm up against it. I think itâs a testament to my entire career.
If you look at it in that way, itâs those moments that have really made me shine and made me memorable to the fans. It has been that when Misha Tate has to grind it out, she can find a way and I still wanna carry that with me, but Iâm also working to sharpen my techniques to get better, to not have to take damage to get these fights. And my last few fights I have been really not damaged.
So thatâs a plus, right? Thatâs really good! It helps to keep the career going when youâre not taking a ton of injuries. So with all that being said, I think that this is what I can say about it.
ESI: You were obviously one of those first women out there at the beginning who were setting trends and setting the ceiling so high. Do you feel now that womenâs MMA has progressed even higher and where does it go from here?
Miesha Tate: I think that I look back and I say it was really a rivalry that put womenâs MMA on the map. It was the hard work and dedication that Ronda and I brought to the table, and the competitive nature, not only with what we were saying, the fire in our words, but the fire in our hearts. And the desire to be the best and to win. And granted, I came up short in both of our matches. I know that they elevated the sport, and so I can walk away and say again that it was an accomplishment. That was a win. That was something that I was a part of. And you donât always have to win on paper to take away a positive or a win.
I think that womenâs MMA needs some more rivalries. I think we really need women to not be disingenuous, but not be afraid to really outwardly be who they are and whatever that is. I donât consider myself a heel by any means, but Iâm unapologetically myself, and I think when you are unapologetically yourself, youâre gonna piss people off.
It doesnât matter if youâre as sweet as apple pie or if youâre an asshole, but if you are who you are and you put it out there, thereâs gonna be people who donât like you for having a stance and having an opinion and being yourself. And I think that sometimes the girls have to remember that they donât have to be something in front of the camera, they have got to be themselves. And I think if we get some more rivalries, I think that would be amazing for the sport.
I mean, even Julianna Pena and Kayla Harrison, that heat between them is great because theyâre speaking their truths. Theyâre speaking what they think. And I think it was fire. I think it was amazing. Iâm sad for Julianna that the fight didnât go her way. I definitely shot her a message and said, âyou can still hang your hat on the fact that youâve done something that no other woman has doneâ.
She physically went through pregnancy and that whole process. And then she came back and sheâs won a title two times. Very few women have won it twice and even less, I think doing that and just everything that sheâs accomplished, and sheâs just a small town girl from Spokane, Washington with no Olympic background or anything like that. Sheâs just walked into a gym because she wanted to lose weight and look at her now. What a story that I think anybody can be inspired by. Anybody.
And this is nothing against Kayla because I admire Kayla too. Oh my gosh. Her story needs to be told over and over again, and it needs to be out there. So a ton of respect. But as my friend, Julianna sheâs just done things I think that are very relatable. Not everybodyâs gonna be able to say they were training judo since I was a very tiny girl and I went to the Olympics. Some people are just gonna be like, I could never do that, because they look at themselves right now. And I wanna say Julianna walked into a gym at like 20 something years old with no prior background and she worked her ass off. And she came in just for the reason of getting fit. And so you just never know when taking that one next step at any point in your life can totally change your trajectory for the better. Itâs quite an incredible story.
ESI: Is there one name you wanted to fight but never got the chance to?
Miesha Tate: Well, Iâve been thinking about that recently. I mostly got to fight everybody that I wanted to fight, but there are some people I wouldâve loved to fight again.
I wouldâve really loved to get a rematch with Cat Zingano. Because that was my first fight in the UFC, and I started out with some really strong rounds. And then she caught me with some really great knees. I feel like the fight was stopped too soon. I was coming in for a takedown, and I think the ref thought that I was dropping. I just wish that I had an opportunity to redeem that. I obviously wanted to fight Holly Holme again because a lot of people thought that I was getting my ass kicked in that fight and I wasnât at all. I wasnât getting my ass kicked. I was getting narrowly edged in points.
People donât realize that if I had just won round five, which I for sure wouldâve done, even if I was just on her back and I didnât finish it, that it wouldâve been a draw. Because I had a ten eight in round two. So it wouldâve been three rounds for three rounds. I actually almost found it irritating and maybe a little bit insulting that I won âComeback of the Yearâ.
I know that people looked at that moment and were like, âitâs so memorable because you had to get the submission in order to win the titleâ. That much is true. If it had gone to a decision, the best they wouldâve got was a draw, which is still a loss. So I understand, but at the same time, âComeback of the Yearâ is somebody who is about to be rolled out of that octagon on a stretcher. And then somehow, find their way to victory. Like miraculously Hail Mary. How in the world did this person do that? We thought the ref was gonna stop the fight and they were gonna be in a world of hurt. And so that to me, âComeback of the Yearâ.
I donât think my fight was âComeback of the Yearâ, but it was special in its own way. Maybe there needs to be another category for it, but I wouldâve loved to get that one in a more dominant way. And then obviously, last but not least, and maybe most importantly, I wouldâve loved to have a rematch with Ronda because I know that I won the first two, but people loved it. And each time with her I improved. She was subbing everyone in one minute. Remember that? Even in our first fight, we went into the latter part of it, which isnât good enough. And then in the second fight, she was the first person to get out of the first round. We went into round three. I had one takedown against her. I was hitting on the feet, but I still needed to improve my striking a lot, and I still didnât understand how to counter or defend judo. I really didnât understand that, and I didnât have partners that could mimic that for me.
Because in those early stages of the sport, there just werenât people that would let you punch them in the face and were also that high level in judo. I just couldnât find it. Especially not women. Now thereâs a lot of people to train with and I feel like my coaching staff has evolved and improved. I wouldâve loved to get that one again. But you know what, Iâve thought about this, even if Ronda never wants to fight again, I would be down to do grappling only. I would do a grappling-only match with Ronda. Sheâs talked about head trauma, and if she really thinks that she can just throw me down and arm bar me, well then, letâs just see. I donât have pride in it. I just wanna test myself and I wanna see if Iâve gotten better. Why not?
ESI: Any up and coming female MMA fighters we might not know about yet?
Miesha Tate: There are a lot of really talented women that are coming up through the divisions right now. I donât know if thereâs one in particular that really stands out to me right now. But these women are talented. Theyâre coming out young and younger. Oh, Iâll give you one, my daughter. Sheâs only seven, but if she chooses to fight, sheâs really talented!
Sheâs already doing jiujitsu, sheâs already doing wrestling. Her thing right now, sheâs just very sweet. She doesnât have an aggressive or mean bone in her body, but I donât think you need it. Sheâs just gotta grow into her mentality a little bit. Sheâs having fun with it, which is what I want at six and seven years old. Sheâll grow into it.
ESI: Holly Holm recently signed with Jake Paul to take part in professional boxing. Is that something youâd ever considered?
Miesha Tate: Oh gosh. When you say âthink about themâ, Iâve thought about them in the sense, what would that be like? What would that look like? What would it take for me to do it? And then I sit back and think about it and Iâm like, âNah!â.
It would be fun to do boxing, but Iâm clearly not a boxer, so I canât sit here and pretend that I could box with the most elite. If somebody else were similar to me, not known for their striking techniques, and they wanted to put boxing gloves on and we wanted to fight, then that could maybe make sense. As far as power slap goes, I struggle with that one because I struggle to find the sport in it. It is a weird one. Itâs just like how many times can we drop this glass on the floor before it shatters? Itâs just like that quick suspense moment, and I just struggle to find the sport in it. So that would be tough for me. Iâm not saying itâs a hard no, but I feel like it would have to benefit my family financially.
Thatâs what it would be for. It would be purely for the money. If it really sets my kids up well, then I might consider doing it once. But Iâm not really a fan of it.
ESI: What do you think about the Jon Jones/Tom Aspinall situation? Do you think heâs ducking him?
Miesha Tate: I feel like Jon Jones is ducking Tom Aspinall. I think Jon Jones is an incredibly smart man, and he is a technician, and he knows when he sees someone that would be difficult to beat. And I think he isnât confident that he has the pieces that it takes to put Tom Aspinall on the mat, you know? Granted, I havenât followed this religiously, but Iâve seen Jon Jones in an interview and saying, âOh, Tom Aspinall is talking all this crapâ, and I think it was Ariel Helwani that was covering it, and I was like, what has Tom Aspinall said? I mean, he doesnât even use curse words. Itâs just like, itâs, you know what I mean?
Heâs pretty much just called him out or said like, oh, heâs ducking me and I donât know from beyond that if thereâs something has changed, but it seems like Aspinallâs been pretty respectful. And even if someoneâs not respectful, thatâs still not a reason to not fight someone, right?
So either way, I donât really see that as a valid excuse, whether Jon Jones is right or not. If Tomâs been respectful or has been disrespectful, it doesnât matter. Your job is to prove that youâre the best, and youâre supposed to move up to heavyweight and do that. I donât understand what all this hemming and hawing is about. Tom Aspinall is where itâs at right now, and I think that he should show up if he wants to or call it. Like if he doesnât wanna fight anymore, then donât. Thatâs okay too.
Image credit: Shutterstock
ESI: You have been around during the Conor McGregor era, has he ever influenced your career directly or indirectly? Whether thatâs something he said or did? Hypothetically, if Conor McGregor returned to the cage tomorrow, who would you want to see him face? Who would make a good matchup?
Miesha Tate: Well, I still want to see that Michael Chandler fight, to be honest. I donât know whatâs been going on with Chandler lately. I donât know. He obviously hasnât quite seemed himself but I like that matchup a lot and I was bummed out that it didnât come to fruition.
I think it wouldâve done a lot for Chandlerâs career win or lose. It just wouldâve been nice to see it. With Paddy (Pimblett) winning and both of them kind of coming from that region of the world. I think that would be fantastic too. Theyâre starting to take Paddy more seriously, but he has this kind of kid look to him sometimes, and he gets really chubby between his fights so people think that he is just not dedicated or whatnot. Itâs like, no, thatâs all just diet. Iâm sure that he trains all the time, and his diet is just really terrible sometimes, and he cleans it up when he needs to. I think that would also be a really fantastic fight.
I just donât think Conorâs in it anymore. I think he wants for nothing. He needs for nothing and he has got things that he can do and places that he can have his positions of power. And itâs like, you know, how hard it is to go through a whole training camp and how dedicated you have to be to actually show up? You canât just think that you can half-ass it and that you have a shot of becoming victorious. I think that Conor wants the glory right now still, but I donât think he wants to do the work and you know, that probably comes to a lot of people at points in their career. Itâs like everybody wants to be successful. I know that the longer that I do this, itâs like, is the juice worth the squeeze? I always have to ask myself that because I have to put a lot into this. What is it that I want out of it, and when have I had enough? Itâs kinda like, when do you walk away from the poker table? Youâre going to say âokay either Iâm going to cut my losses, or Iâm going to say this has been a great game. Iâm ready to move on to something bigger and better and take my investments otherwise.â
ESI: UFC 318 is shaping up to be a huge card, especially with Max Holloway vs Dustin Poirier 3 as the headliner. How do you see this trilogy fight playing out, and who walks away with the win this time?
Miesha Tate: Itâs so tough and I love both of those guys. Theyâre just absolute animals. I think if I have to pick one, I would lean towards Max. I think just stylistically it might favour him, but thatâs a really tough fight to pick. I love Dustin Poirier, heâs just fantastic. Theyâre both great and I think the fans win in that one either way.
ESI: They say Olympic athletes sometimes hit a low after winning â âgold medal syndrome.â Did you feel anything like that after reaching the top in the UFC?
Miesha Tate: Oh yeah, for sure. My UFC world title was the best thing that ever happened to me for about two weeks, and then it was the worst thing.
I think for me, what happened was I wasnât aware of the gold medal syndrome. That sounds like something that I had because it was great for about two weeks and you ride the high, and then you realise that it fixes nothing and you thought it was going to fix everything. Because when youâre working so hard towards something, itâs easy to blame all the problems in your life and all the things you shut away and you donât deal with and you donât express, and you just move on like a machine.
Youâre like âwell if I just accomplish this, then it will be justifiable and all my problems will be fixed. That must be the reason why Iâm not happyâ. And then once you get it, youâre like âOh, Iâm so happy.â and then it fades off because itâs like this major dopamine hit. And then it drops off, and youâre like, âwait a minute, it actually fixed nothing, now I donât know what to even do about itâ.
Before you get the belt you think, well if I just get that then itâll help but then you get a see behind the curtain and youâre like, itâs not the solution. Where is up from there, right? Youâre at the peak, youâre at the top of Mount Everest and youâre like, thereâs nothing left to climb. Now I can just maintain. It doesnât pull me out of this dark place, it doesnât solve my problems, it doesnât help me deal with anything. As athletes, we get so good at compartmentalising and putting away our feelings because our feelings donât serve us. We have to sort of become soldiers or robots. We try not to engage in our feelings. We try not to deal with any of the problems because it doesnât help you with the mission at hand⌠but that just also doesnât help you be a human being. Itâs pretty counterproductive. We need to deal with things, we need to process things, and when we donât do that, I think it can be quite a deadly combination.
There were definitely times in my career when I was asking myself whether my life was still worth living really, and I definitely got into some very dark places. Especially after I lost my title and especially after my second loss.
I was still under this impression that if I could just get it back or if I could just get another win, that would fix everything. Itâs just such a momentary fix. I now work with a sports psychologist at the UFC Performance Institute. Itâs more of a performance coach. He does cognitive behavioural therapy. Micah is his name, and heâs fantastic.
He really changed my life and gave me some new skills. Sometimes when we cut bad stuff out of our life, like letâs say somebody just wants to quit smoking or they want to stop something. When itâs a big part of your life, you canât just empty the bucket. You have to find something to replace it with. Thatâs what I didnât know how to do. I didnât know how to replace fighting, so I just kept fighting but it was not good for me. And thatâs when I took that hiatus and I kind of had the pseudo retirement, which I thought was gonna be real. My children definitely saved me. They have motivated me to be the best version of myself, and thatâs a blessing. And having children, you know that they will give so much more to you and youâve just got to nourish that because it doesnât last forever.
Your job is to help them be like a light to be lit and let them find their way through life and give them the most tools and everything that you can. Youâve got to take it into consideration and you have to do your best.
ESI: What about Elon Musk against Donald Trump? Who do you see coming out on top there? Theyâve had their big fallout, havenât they?
Miesha Tate: Those two are just going at it right now and I canât figure out if itâs like a political ploy. I donât know. I always believe everything thatâs like one of my worst traits. Itâs bad! I think I always take everybody as though theyâre honest.
So I feel like that they probably would just do this as a political ploy. [Itâs got quite out of hand, didnât it? Itâs got quite spicy.] Itâs gotten very spicy, and itâs disturbing, but itâs also quite entertaining. So who do I think is gonna come out on top of this? Well, I think Elon is the smarter of the two, if I must be honest. I donât think he would play his cards this way unless he knew the hand, you know what I mean? I think he knows where heâs going. I think Trump is more reactive.
ESI: I remember back in 2013, You said you wouldnât fight Fallon Fox due to health concerns. Donald Trumpâs has come in and made changes to sport so that transgender athletes canât compete against women. How has your kind of take on the whole situation progressed over the years?
Miesha Tate: I still think that there is not enough conclusive evidence to prove that it is safe for transgender people to compete against biological women. I just donât know if thereâs enough evidence, and some people will feel comfortable with the evidence. I donât.
I think the fact that women even have to deal with cycles and all the hormone changes and everything like that, is just something thatâs a very complicated part of the process for females that we have to add into addition, especially when it comes to weight cutting and things like that. So I just donât think that itâs proven that it can be 100% equal. And so with that being said, like I donât support it.
I do not support men, in any form competing in female sports. I just donât think that itâs fair. I donât think that itâs right. And sports are not inclusive. By their nature. By the nature of sport, itâs a non-inclusive thing to do. So if youâre not good enough, you just donât make it, and thatâs a hard lesson to learn, but itâs a valuable one. I donât think every child deserves a trophy either, because I think that children need to know what theyâre good at. Children always have something that theyâre great at, but if they think theyâre equally as good at everything, because they always get a trophy for everything they do, they may not be able to distinguish the fact that, oh, I am better at this, let me go that way. And then they play into their natural talents. So itâs confusing to them. I mean, so weâre not helping our children distinguish and find their greatness. Everyone has something that they are going to excel at better than other people, and thatâs what makes this world balanced and interesting. So I just donât think we do our children a service to give them everyone a trophy either.
So yeah, I am not for that and Iâm not for biological males competing in female sports. I think that thereâs a great potential that itâs unsafe, especially in contact sports. And sports are not meant to include everybody. I mean, if you wanna do a sport that includes everybody, then try pickleball, thatâs fine.
ESI: One last question. I think you are a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, arenât you? Are you excited about the new season? Are you gonna be going to any of the games? Whatâs the plan?
Miesha Tate: Actually, Iâm going to the game on August 7th, the Seahawks vs the Raiders. Preseason game up in Seattle. So Iâll be there for that. Iâm definitely excited for the season. Iâm always gonna support the Seahawks even if Iâm not able to follow it super closely. Like Iâm not somebody whoâs like following the drafts and the picks and all those things. Like Iâm way too busy.
bumppp
Wtf⌠why are they asking about elon vs trump? Fucking mma media progressive cunts.