Doesn’t it feel like Miesha Tate was just at the top of her game? Back in March, less than four months after Holly Holm handed Ronda Rousey her first career loss at UFC 193, Tate followed through on her promise to ruin a potential Rousey/Holm rematch by forcing Holm to submit during a fight at UFC 196. She then called Rousey out after the fight and tried to bait her into getting back into the Octagon for a title fight.
Rousey never really responded to her, though, so Tate accepted a fight against Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 and proceeded to lose by submission. She then accepted a non-title fight against Raquel Pennington at UFC 205, and on Saturday night, she lost that fight, too. And after the fight was over, she made a pretty stunning announcement. She told the fans gathered at Madison Square Garden that she is retiring from the UFC, effective immediately.
"I’m announcing my retirement, you guys," she said. "I love y’all so much. I’ve been doing this for over a decade. Thank you so much for being here. I love this sport forever, but it’s not my time anymore. It’s the future’s time."
Some MMA analysts have pointed out that Tate may have just gotten caught up in the moment:
But she sounded pretty serious to us, and she didn’t look all that inspired during her fight against Pennington. So even though she’s not that far removed from one of the biggest moments of her MMA career, this may really be it for her.
