As former champion Miesha Tate prepares for her return to action in May, she’s not only looking to beat Yana Santos, but she also wants to make a final push at winning a UFC title again before her career is over.
Already recognized as one of the most accomplished women’s fighters in history, the bantamweight veteran didn’t compete at all in 2024 due to a myriad of reasons including lingering injuries, motherhood and expanding her business empire. That said, Tate promises that she’s coming back with a vengeance and hopes that a second straight win on her resume puts her that much closer to an eventual title shot.
“An ideal year is win this fight, win another fight and be calling for a title shot,” Tate told MMA Fighting. “I want that turnover as quickly as possible because I feel like I’m here for a good time, not for a long time so I’m trying to make it happen in this year. We’ll see what happens. This is my year I feel like to either make it happen or not.”
Right now a path to winning a UFC title again would travel through Julianna Pena, who became a two-time bantamweight champion with her victory over Raquel Pennington this past year. All signs are pointing towards Pena making her first title defense against two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison sometime later this year, although an exact date hasn’t been determined yet.
Tate has long considered Pena a very close friend and they’ve spent a huge part of their careers training together, which even included a stint on The Ultimate Fighter reality show. With Tate serving as coach, Pena was her top pick on the series before she went onto win the entire competition.
Because they share so much history together, Tate admits it would be incredibly bittersweet to earn her way back to an opportunity to become UFC champion again only for Pena to be the last remaining obstacle in her way.
The situation grows even more difficult when considering Tate fighting somebody like Harrison would solve those problems but she would never fathom rooting against Pena.
“I ideally don’t want to have to fight Julie for a title because we are friends and we have a long history and I have so much respect and love for her,” Tate said. “She’s done so much for me early on in my career. She was there, she was a body, she was always game. I’m so grateful for the contributions that Julie made to my career.
“So I want to her to win in the matchup with Kayla, but I also want to fight for a title fight, and I don’t want to fight Julie. So it’s like either way it’s not going to work out exactly how I would love for it to. So I’m just going to leave it in the fate of God and the universe of whatever happens.”
As much as she doesn’t want the Pena fight, Tate has the same thought on that potential matchup as she did as champion after dethroning Holly Holm back in 2016.
Tate knew winning the title put a massive target on her back and she would never fault anyone coming after her in hopes of becoming champion — and that included Pena.
“I was like look I will never hold that away from you,” Tate said about her conversation with Pena back then. “I will never turn you away or be like ‘hey, you can’t have a shot at my belt’ because it’s the belt, it’s the dream. It is not personal.
“I would hope she would have that same understanding that this is not personal. This is friendship aside. This is just dreams and aspirations and what not. Would I fight Julie for a title? Yes, I would. If that’s what it comes down to then I would.”
First things first, Tate has to get through Santos on May 3 and then Pena is expected to defend her title against Harrison in the near future.
When it comes to that fight, Tate understands the hype and attention that Harrison has received ever since she signed with the UFC, but as good as she’s looked through two fights thus far, facing off against Pena is a whole different kind of animal.
“I always think Julie is so much better than people give her credit for,” Tate said. “Because it’s when you’re the armchair expert and you’re sitting on the sideline and you don’t know what kind of power that she puts behind her strikes. You don’t know the kind of tenacity and resiliency that woman has and the things that she does well. She looks awkward doing them sometimes but that’s even harder once you’re standing in front of somebody and they’re so unorthodox. They just do everything differently.
“But Julie’s so framed with her striking. So yes, it’s not snappy, but when you get hit by her, it’s unlike most of the women in the division. It’s not cute. It’s not like a pink bunny rabbit. It’s like a Mack truck just blowing through your body. I don’t know how else to explain it. She’s incredible. I think that is where it could really catch Kayla off guard.”
Make no mistake, Harrison’s world-class judo skills give her a path to victory as well but Tate won’t ever count Pena out of a fight, especially if she can drag the former PFL champion down into the muddy waters where she better equipped to win.
“Kayla has an incredible skill set. We cannot deny the woman,” Tate said. “She should be exactly where she’s at. She’s got a great skill set, but if you are talking about a full on fist fight and slugging it out and who would shy away or break first just when you’re talking about those exchanges, I know it’s not Julie. If Kayla can get a hold of Julie and get her down, she’s always got a path to victory in that. But do I think she’ll win on the feet? No, I don’t think so at all. And do I think on the ground she’s going to have an easy time with Julie even if she gets her there? Absolutely not — which I do think she’ll get Julie there. I mean she’s just too good. She’s too well rounded, she’s got great judo, she’ll get Julie down but don’t be surprised if Julie gets on top of her and that could be a nightmare for Kayla. Julie has great reversals from the bottom.
“So she’s scrappy and tenacious and there’s no amount of damage that will ever even slow Julianna down. I think we’ve seen that in the fight with Amanda [Nunes]. It won’t even slow her down. You have to absolutely kill Julie to get a victory. That’s how I look at it.”
