Miesha Tate’s ESPN The Magazine “Body Issue” Photo Released

Miesha Tate has, like UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, made the decision to pose for ESPN The Magazine’s “Body Issue.” The issue hits newsstands on July 12.

A recent feature by the NY Daily News revealed the photo, which was taken by Ben Watts for ESPN on a private beach in California. Tate, however, said it was far from a “private” shoot.

“It was nerve-racking,” Tate revealed. “Even though it was a private beach, there’s still big houses all around and we had a couple of people trying to walk by the shoot.”

Tate had criticized Rousey when the champion posed for the Body Issue, but seems to have changed her tune a bit now that she has finished up her photo shoot.

“One of the of the biggest common misperceptions about women’s mixed martial arts is that we’re not feminine,” Tate told NY Daily News. “So for me, it’s important to show that women in this sport are comfortable about their bodies, that we’re pretty and carry ourselves as women — and we can also turn it up a notch in the cage.”

Tate and Rousey are opposing coaches on the upcoming The Ultimate Fighter 18 series and are currently filming the series in Las Vegas, although UFC president Dana White has said that the filming is going “bad.”

“I don’t even know if some of that stuff will make TV. It’s bad.  Those two do not like each other and their camps do not like each other.  And it is pure (expletive) mayhem every day,” said White, before adding, “It’s Ken and Tito type stuff,” he said.

Tate will get her chance to exact revenge on Rousey when they meet for the second time at UFC 168 on Dec. 28 in Las Vegas.

(Miesha Tate ESPN The Magazine photo courtesy of Ben Watts/ESPN The Magazine)