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Miesha Tate

Miesha "Take Down" Tate (11-2) enters the Strikeforce cage the challenger and aims to walk out the Women's 135 lb Champion when she fights reigning champ Marloes Coenen (19-4) in the Co-Main Event of Strikeforce/M-1: Fedor vs Henderson on July 30th. Tate spoke with NW Fightscene's Spaniard in the week before the fight about her training with Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, her thoughts on Coenen, and a whole lot more...

NW Fightscene: How has your training been for this bout on July 30th?
Miesha Tate: Its been good. Its one of those things when you're training really hard and you're training for 5 five minute rounds, you're going to have bumps and bruises and dings along the way that you're going to have to take care of. But for the most part, I feel like I'm ready for this fight. And mentally I'm very confident. The style matchup I think is great. I've had a little turbulence on the way but I'm here. I'm ready to get the job done.

NWFS: You're coming off a knee injury. What was rehab like?

Tate: The knee is fine. I don't have any problem with it. The rehab took about four to six weeks. Then I had to do a little work to get some of the muscle back in my leg. Other than that, I haven't had any residual effects this training camp.

NWFS: Who have been some of your main sparring partners getting you ready?

Tate: Chad Mendes, Joseph Benavidez. Joseph Morales. Alex. And Bryan Caraway, my boyfriend.

NWFS: You've been down there a while at Ultimate Fitness. How's it been going?

Tate: It's been great for me. The mentality here is really what makes the difference. I feel like you can go to a lot of places and find tough people and good sparring partners, but they just have a good vibe here and good unity. That's what I really enjoy about being down here more than anything else.

NWFS: Have you changed anything up for this camp for Marloes? And when it comes to training camps, do you tailor them specifically to the opponent or keep them the same every time?

Tate: I do make them specific to my fighter. But I feel like I've fought people similar to Marloes numerous times. So generally its a pretty natural game plan for me. I feel like she probably has a little bit of an edge with the standup. Just experience, height and reach logically I would say that would probably be her safest bet is to try to keep it on the feet. So I take that away from her eventually. I cant see why we wouldn't go to the ground at least once inside the 25 minute fight, and that's where I think my strength matches up with her and that's where I intend to finish the fight.

NWFS: Talking about strengths & weaknesses, what is her most dangerous strength and how do you plan to attack it?

Tate: I think she's going to be striking with a lot of conviction. I don't see her holding back too much. I respect that right hand of hers. I know she has a lot of power with that. Other than that, she's got a couple of submissions that she seems to be pretty slick at from the guard position. Ideally, I parry and slip the right hand, move in for a take down either off hard strikes of my own or off of her being over-committed with her strikes. Grab a hold of her. Anywhere that I think we are grabbing on to each other, I believe I will have the advantage. And then once it hits the ground, pass her guard from the get-go. If not, then I'll have to work to pass the guard, stay in good position so that if I'm not making any mistakes she won't be able to capitalize on anything as far as a submission goes. And then either look for a TKO or a submission finish. 

NWFS: When you play this out on your head, do you see it ending in a TKO, knockout, or a submission?

Tate: I would like to win by a submission but I'll take a win any way possible. I probably see a TKO. I see myself getting in some kind of dominant position where striking is just readily available and I don't have to look for anything. But I think it would say a little bit more if I won by a submission because I don't think anyone has beaten her with a submission win yet, & most of her wins are by submissions.

NWFS: You recently said in an interview that Marloes is preparing for a totally different Miesha Tate. Can you tell us about the Miesha we'll see on July 30th and how that differs from the old Miesha?

Tate: Yeah. It's been almost a year since she's seen me compete so she's readying herself for the fighter that I was a year ago. And I feel like I've evolved so much being down here, training with Team Alpha Male, that I'm not that fighter anymore. I'm on a totally different level. My skill set, my strength, my speed, everything that equates to me being a better fighter has been strengthened by being here and being a part of this team. So I don't think she is really informed about that and I feel she really is underestimating me a lot. She's saying I'm overestimating myself, I saw that she said that somewhere. I think it would make more sense if she said I was underestimating her. How can she know I'm overestimating myself? That just goes to show that she really has no clue to what she is talking about.

NWFS: What are your thoughts on her as an opponent?

Tate: I think she's a fantastic fighter. I think she's been a great representation for women's MMA. She's definitely a pioneer in the sport. She's been fighting for ten years plus. She's got the heart of a champion, no doubt. She has no bend or break in her. I know that coming into this fight, I'm not just going to be able to walk out there and take the belt. I'm going to have to force it with everything that I have. I'm going to have to give it a hundred and ten percent. As far as Marloes as a fighter, I have a lot of respect for her and really have nothing bad to say about that at all.

NWFS: What would winning the championship mean for you?

Tate: It means everything. I have put so much time and work and energy into this. Just a lot of grit, you know. I've had some bumps on the road in this training camp and its been really tough, but its been mentally for me very invigorating. Its made me a lot tougher and I think ninety percent of a fight, if not more, is won mentally. I know I have the skill set. All I need is the mentality to back it up and I really feel confident about that coming into the fight.

NWFS: How would you suggest to deepen the talent pool for women's MMA?

Tate: I think basically we need more limelight. We need more like what Strikeforce is doing to promote women's MMA. That's going to encourage other women to come out because they'll see there is an opportunity there. There's also a lot of women that people just don't know about yet because of a lack of exposure. I use Liz (Carmouche) as a prime example. She came out, nobody really knew who she was, simply because she hadn't got the exposure yet. But when she came out there and took it to the champion for four rounds... And Marloes is also another great example, when she came out and fought Sarah Kaufman. She's been fighting for so long. She had a very impressive record, yet nobody really knew who she was. The only reason they didn't know who she was because she hadn't got that mainstream exposure. 

So its not that we're not there. Its not that there's not a lot of talented women, we just need the opportunity for other people to realize that and give us the go, give us the green light, give us that push that we need. And that in turn will also encourage other women to come out and be competitors as well, which will deepen the division.

NWFS: What advice would you give a female fighter coming up through the ranks?

Tate: You have to stay tougher, especially as a woman. Because you're going to have a lot of critics. You're going to have a lot of skeptical people, a lot of stereotypical people that are going to judge you and say 'well, female fighters are this or women shouldn't fight'. Just brush it off. Keep doing what you're doing. If your heart and passion is in it, I believe at some point it will lead to success. So just keep your nose to the grindstone and let everything else roll of your back.

NWFS: Any shoutouts?

Tate: I'd like to say thank you to Punishment Fight Gear. It looks like they are going to sponsor me for this fight so that's exciting. Thank you so much to my fans on Twitter and Facebook, being so positive and really believing in me. It makes my day to just read my Twitter comments. Thank you to Team Alpha Male for supporting me and pushing me to be the best fighter. Thank you to my boyfriend for being my rock. He's really taken the bull by the horns and done a lot of the stuff that's not fun, like scheduling and helping me get my medicals in order. All the things that can be stressful on you as a fighter, he's kind of taken that responsibility to lighten my load so that I can really be successful. And that has been a tremendous help to me. Thank my family for supporting me even though when I first started fighting they thought I was absolutely nuts. But somehow they always had my dreams and goals put in front of theirs. So they've always supported me and my decisions, as weird as thy may have seemed. And thank you to NW FIghtscene for having me on. Always a pleasure. I love representing the NW. Its where I came from, my home.

NW Fightscene would like to thank Miesha for taking the time for this interview. She takes on Marloes Coenen for the Strikeforce World Women's 135lb Championship on Sat July 30th in the Co-Main Event of Strikeforce/M-1: Fedor vs Henderson taking place in the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago. The event will be broadcast live on Showtime 10 PM ET/PT (tape delayed for West Coast). More info at Strikeforce.com. Miesha is online at Facebook and on Twitter @MieshaTate.