It sounds like Miesha Tate stepped away from mixed martial arts at the right time.
After a unanimous decision loss to Raquel Pennington on the UFC 205 main card, the former women’s bantamweight champion promptly announced her retirement. She said that she decided to hang the gloves up mostly because of the bout’s result, but also implied that losing to Pennington made her realize that she didn’t have enough left in the gas tank to continue competing.
“It’s not my time anymore, it’s the future’s time,” Tate said in her post-fight interview with commentator Joe Rogan. “I had a lot more to give but I couldn’t pull it out of myself.”
Tate (18-7), one of the most notable female fighters in the sport and a true pioneer of women’s MMA, won the women’s 135-pound title earlier this year with a memorable come-from-behind submission of Holly Holm in the fifth round of the UFC 196 co-main event. She wasn’t able to hold onto the belt for long, however. In her first title defense, which headlined UFC 200 this past summer, “Cupcake” was finished by Amanda Nunes in the first round.
Tate’s boyfriend, UFC bantamweight contender Bryan Caraway, further explained the 30-year-old’s decision to call it quits after a decade-long career.
“She’s not herself lately,” Caraway told BloodyElbow.com Sunday. “She looked like that in the Nunes fight. She said it last night — her heart’s not in it anymore, so she didn’t care to try.”
UFC 205 took place live from Madison Square Garden in New York City on Nov. 12. In the main event, Conor McGregor became the first fighter to hold two UFC belts simultaneously with a second-round knockout of Eddie Alvarez.
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