Sunday, August 28, 2011

Miesha Tate



Miesha Tate



Miesha Tate (born August 18, 1986) is a professional mixed martial artist.



She is the current Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion and the current Freestyle Cage Fighting Women's Bantamweight Champion. She has also competed and won a silver medal in the FILA Grappling Championships



Tate is currently the #4-ranked pound-for-pound female MMA fighter in the world by MMARising.com and the #1-ranked 135-pound female fighter according to the Unified Women's MMA Rankings.

Tate wrestled on the boys' wrestling team in high school. In 2005, she won the high school women's state championship and went on to win nationals at the World Team Trials in the 158 lb division.



Soon after, Tate joined a mixed martial arts sport club at Central Washington University that was run by her current boyfriend and trainer, Bryan Caraway.

Miesha Tate

Tate debuted in mixed martial arts in 2007 at the one-night HOOKnSHOOT Women's Grand Prix. She defeated Jan Finney in the opening round, but was knocked out later in the night by a head kick from eventual tournament champion Kaitlin Young.



On June 27, 2008, Tate faced Cung Le protégé Elaina Maxwell at Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson.Tate moved up in weight for the fight and defeated Maxwell by Unanimous Decision.



Tate won three more times and captured the FCF Women's Bantamweight Championship by defeating Liz Carreiro at Freestyle Cage Fighting on April 4, 2009.



She returned to Strikeforce at Strikeforce Challengers: Evangelista vs. Aina on May 15, 2009. Tate was originally scheduled to face Kim Couture, but Couture withdrew from the fight due to undisclosed reasons and Tate was matched up against undefeated Canadian Sarah Kaufman instead.In a competitive fight, Tate was defeated by Unanimous Decision, but it marked the first time that Kaufman had gone to a decision.



Tate knocked out Sarah Oriza eight seconds into the second round at a CageSport MMA event on October 3, 2009.

She successfully defended her FCF title by defeating Valerie Coolbaugh in the first round by armbar at FCF 38 on January 16, 2010.



Tate faced Zoila Frausto at Strikeforce Challengers: Johnson vs. Mahe on March 26, 2010.Tate won the fight by armbar submission in the second round.



Tate is scheduled to be part of the one-night Strikeforce 135-pound women's tournament on August 13, 2010 at Strikeforce Challengers: Riggs vs. Taylor.Arandom drawing was held on the day of the weigh-ins to determine first-round matchups and Tate faced Maiju Kujala in the opening round of the tournament.

Tate defeated Kujala by Unanimous Decision after two rounds to advance to the tournament final, then defeated Hitomi Akano by Unanimous Decision after three rounds to become Strikeforce Women's Welterweight Tournament Champion.

Tate was scheduled to challenge Marloes Coenen for the Strikeforce Women's Welterweight Championship on March 5, 2011, but withdrew from the fight after suffering a knee injury in training.



In order to unify all weight classes, Zuffa changed the title held by Marloes Coenen from Welterweight to Bantamweight prior to the fight taking place. Tate's fight with Marloes Coenen for the Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Championship was rescheduled for Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson on July 30, 2011. Tate defeated Coenen via submission (arm-triangle choke) to become the new Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion. “I think I’m not in reality quite yet,” Tate said shortly after winning the women’s bantamweight title. “I can’t believe that I have a belt to take home with me. I really had to dig deep those last couple rounds. Like I said, I had a tough end to my training camp, but I just feel like I went out there and I did what I needed to do and I won the fight and I’m world champion.”



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