UFC
Miesha Tate makes it clear she did not turn down Ronda Rousey fight in the UFC, as one was never offered
Dec 10, 2012 - 10:45:39 PM Miesha Tate makes it clear she did not turn down Ronda Rousey fight in the UFC, as one was never offered

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

When UFC President Dana White announced Ronda Rousey's first UFC bout last week, he managed to make much of the women's 135 lb. division look bad by driving home the "no one wants to fight Ronda Rousey" sentiment. Rousey herself then commented that Sara McMann and Miesha Tate both turned down a fight against her, which in turn led to Liz Carmouche getting the nod.

However, that's turned out to be less than factual, as both McMann and Tate have come out publicly stating that they weren't even offered a fight with Rousey, let alone turning one down. White himself even admitted that Tate wasn't even offered the fight when responding to a fan on Twitter. So why the call out if there was nothing to be called out for? That's what Tate's wondering this week, and she's not happy that her name has been smeared by this contention that she didn't want the fight.

"Absolutely not," Tate said when asked if she turned down the fight in an interview with The MMA Hour. "I was never presented with that. I had made it clear that I wanted to take some time off after my last win over Julie Kedzie, but that doesn't mean you don't make an exception to the rule when something like that is presented. Clearly when I made those statements, that was before women were coming to the UFC for sure. That was before it be would an opportunity to headline. That was before it would an opportunity to make history."

"If they would have said, 'Hey, you want to fight Ronda in the UFC? You want to headline a UFC card for the first fight in history for women?' I would have been like, hell yeah. But it wasn't offered to me."

Tate doesn't mind the fact that she didn't get a call for the fight. She did lose by armbar to Rousey last March, and she wasn't expecting a rematch immediately. But she also doesn't understand why Rousey would falsely make the claim that she turned down the fight.

"That's exactly what bothered me," said Tate. "It wasn't that I didn't get offered the fight, because I'm okay with earning the rematch. I'm okay with working my way back up there and really feeling like I deserve that position. I'm fine with that. But I'm not okay with Ronda saying that I'm basically afraid to fight her and that I turned that fight down, and that she thinks it's funny that happened. Because it never happened. It's not something that if the UFC had offered to me, I would ever even consider turning down."

"Ronda is one of those people that like to say things that get attention and she likes to call people out. She likes to get under skin, and maybe that's all part of her tactic. I don't know if she really believes that, or if it was just something that she kind of wanted to run with a little bit. But either way, for me that's not important. What's important is that I'm able to get my truth out there and set the record straight."

Penick's Analysis: Either Rousey was told that Tate and McMann turned down fights against her, or for whatever reason she felt the need to bury them in an interview after White announced the fight with Carmouche. It was unnecessary, one because she's already beaten Tate, and two because the narrative they're selling doesn't hold up if those in question refute it immediately. You can't say "no one wants to fight her" if you're not offering the bout to those more than willing to take the fight. They're not casting much of a net to come to that conclusion, and it ultimately backfires because Tate's not one to sit back and keep quiet.