After executing her game plan to perfection in the co-main event of UFC 196, newly crowned UFC women's bantamweight champion Miesha Tate decided to focus on enjoying the moment rather than think about her potential opponents, and that's entirely fair enough, but Dana White had different ideas.
Speaking to Sports Centre after the event, Dana White admitted that the fight the UFC had in mind for the new champ's first defence was the third iteration of Miesha Tate vs Ronda Rousey, and explained that he had to text Ronda and let her know the result of Saturday's fight as she had not been watching.
I think that Ronda now will fight Miesha Tate for the title. That’s what’s going to happen. That’s what I said before this fight even happened.
I texted Ronda, and Ronda wasn’t even watching the fight.
I texted Ronda, and she said, ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘Miesha just choked her unconscious.’ And she said, ‘Well, it looks like I got to get back to work.’ I don’t know what that means – if that means acting or fighting.
Tate may very well have improved as a fighter since the last time she faced Rousey, but it was clear then that Ronda had far too much for 'Cupcake', and it was also clear that the UFC were reluctant to give Tate another crack before Holly Holm stepped up and knocked Ronda off her perch.
Now, we are looking at a very interesting Rock/Paper/Scissors type of scenario, where Miesha can defeat Holly, who can defeat Ronda, who can defeat Miesha... And so on and so forth.
Should Rousey win her title back against Tate, then the next logical fight is Holm, but can she get her striking up to scratch in time? And say Holly wins that, the next logical fight would be Tate!
White also confirmed that Rousey has suggested she would take a break until October, but it is plausible that she would return early for a chance to fight Tate, who she really, really doesn't like in case you didn't already know that.
We'll wait for confirmation, but it looks like bad news if you're a UFC women's bantamweight with title aspirations and your last name isn't Rousey, Holm, or Tate.
