It’s no secret that number-one ranked women’s bantamweight Miesha Tate has been unhappy with her position in the UFC for quite some time now. A scrapped rubber match with Ronda Rousey and an ongoing discussion about her financial compensation is bothering the 29-year old so much, that she is even contemplating retirement if things won’t change quickly.
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“It’s not what I want,” Tate said on the latest episode of the MMA Hour. “But I’m also not going to — I’m not willing to bend and I’m not willing to break. I’m a very, very stubborn person. I’m a very, very strong-willed person. I think I’m a fair person. I don’t think I’m asking for too much.”
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UFC commentator Joe Rogan recently brought up the topic during his podcast too, and said he finds it ‘weird’ that Tate is making far less money than champion Ronda Rousey, who made a reported $6 million dollars in fight purses last year alone.
“I’ll tell you I made nowhere near, not even close to that, and yet they want me to fight higher-ranked and much better skilled opponents than Ronda is fighting? And she gets paid millions and I get paid pennies on the dollar?,” Tate asked. “I have a tremendous fanbase, and I don’t think any of us really want retirement to be the situation. So the UFC needs to kind of wake up and smell the coffee and make something work.”
Tate expects to have a meeting with UFC president Dana White later this month to assess her future in the UFC. Should talks in that meeting go south, chances are that “Cupcake” could be hanging up her gloves for good.
“It’s either going to go up in flames or [White] is going to say that I’m making some valid points and make some adjustments,” Tate said. “I’m pretty dead-set on what I feel like I deserve and what I want. I know what I want, and I’m just not going to take anything less. So I guess he’s going to have to be prepared to deal with one stubborn woman.”
Tate was promised a third fight against women’s bantamweight champion Rousey after a unanimous-decision win over Jessica Eye in July. But ultimately the lower-ranked former boxing world champion Holly Holm received the shot, what left Tate without an opponent since. It’s a situation that as Tate explained, has ‘ruined her life’.
“I understand they have a job to do. They want to promote, they want to make fights that sell. I get it,” Tate said. “But this is also my life and I’m not a robot and I’m not a puppet.
“I’m not the champion, so why am I fighting girls tougher than Ronda for pennies on the dollar? Period. It’s a matter of making a statement and just saying to the UFC, I’m not going to be pushed around into this so it’s not going to happen unless you guys make some serious changes.”
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