Nate Diaz stole the headlines but, for me, Miesha Tate stole the show.
The co-main event of UFC 196 quickly turned into the greatest fight in the history of the promotion’s women’s bantamweight division and I genuinely feel privileged that I was present when Miesha Tate overcame the odds and adversity to claim the 135 lb strap.
Tate’s submission victory over Holly Holm wasn’t so much a comeback as it was a case of snatching victory from the jaws of definite defeat.
Holm was not only up 38-37 on all judges’ scorecards after four rounds but she was coasting through the fifth by nullifying the takedown attempts of ‘Cupcake.’
Let me take you back to before the fight when Tate was making her way to the octagon.
A colleague and I, sat together in the press area, were commenting on how very nervous she looked throughout her walkout. Tate is typically relaxed and appears focused before she takes to the mat.
The first round escaped her and the nerves were telling from both fighters after an almost frustratingly tentative opening five minutes.
Then, in the second round, Tate came on stronger than anybody expected. She secured a takedown and refused to relinquish top position, coming as close as you could possibly imagine to finishing a rear naked choke. The round, as I expected, was considered a 10-8 on the judges’ scorecards.
But then, the fight got away from Tate. She was getting countered easily in rounds three and four, she couldn’t cut the cage off and any attempts to get close to Holm’s hips resulted in her sustaining punishment.
The fifth round started in much the same way as Holm kept her distance and continued to pepper away at enough shots to glide to a routine victory.
Flash forward to myself and the same colleague discussing how Tate’s lack of a willingness to pull the trigger was going to cost her this fight.
No sooner had we agreed on that point than Tate bit down on her mouthpiece and dived on a body lock, dragging Holm to the mat.
She transitioned to back mount, she sunk in her right hook, she teased her right forearm under Holm’s chin, she grabbed her left biceps, she avoided Holm’s attempts to shake her off, she sunk in her left hook and she choked Holm unconscious.
It was beautiful. It was captivating. And it was the deserved reward for a career of grinding hard work.
Only last November, ‘Cupcake’ had suggested that she was contemplating retirement after her then four-fight win streak wasn’t recognised by the promotion and the next title shot was handed to Holly Holm, who did what she did at UFC 193 in Melbourne.
But she came back from the cusp, in her career and in Saturday night’s fight, to prove that she will not be the latest entry on the list of great fighters to have never held a UFC title.
Tate, for all of her blue collar work ethic and never say die attitude, has reaped the benefits of sticking to her guns and believing in her own potential to be the best in the world.
There’s nothing better for a fight fan to see than a competitor who you’ve admired for so long prove themselves on the ultimate proving ground.
But the manner of the victory so often counts and Tate’s is going to go down in history as one of the greatest come-from-behind wins in UFC history.
It’s such a shame that her achievement is going to be overshadowed by Nate Diaz’s victory over Conor McGregor but hopefully the MMA world is lucid enough to realise that what Miesha Tate did on Saturday night was incredible.
And I’m just glad I saw it live.
