Strikeforce Targeting Late Summer Date for Marloes Coenen vs. Miesha Tate

Miesha Tate blasting Elaina Maxwell

Make no mistake about it, there will be no love lost when Strikeforce welterweight women’s champion Marloes Coenen finally meets Miesha Tate later this year.

The two fighters were set to square off in March, but a late knee injury forced Tate to drop out of the bout, and forgo her shot at the title. Liz Carmouche stepped in as a late replacement and almost took the title from Coenen, but a late submission helped the champion hold onto her title.

Now that Tate’s knee is recovered and she’s on her way back to training again, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker says the promotion is targeting a clash between the two later this year.

“That’s a fight we tried to put together a couple of months ago at the Columbus, Ohio, card in March, so we’re going to try to put that together sometime late summer,” Coker confirmed when appearing on MMAWeekly Radio. “Put that fight back on the books because that fight just needs to happen.”

Following her win over Carmouche in March, it appeared Coenen possibly held some anger towards Tate for her late dropout from their fight, and there was still a certain score to settle.

For her part, Tate isn’t sure why Coenen has harsh feelings towards her, but when they meet later this year, she’ll be happy to deal with them in the cage.

“It seemed a little cocky when she called me out after somewhat of a lackluster performance,” Tate told MMAWeekly.com recently. “So I guess I just leave it where it’s at. I don’t hate Marloes, I don’t even dislike her, but I have a lot of motivation to win that fight.”

Coker also mentioned that once the June 18 show in Texas happens, the promotion is gearing up for a very busy second half of 2011.

They haven’t released dates or locations for future events, but expect Coenen vs. Tate to be a major part of a show in the late summer or early fall this year.

Damon Martin is the lead staff writer and radio host for MMAWeekly.com.
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