UFC 168’s Miesha Tate: ‘It’s perfectly OK to be a beautiful and empowered woman’

It’s unquestionable that Miesha Tate‘s fame spiked in 2009 when, as as an up-and-comer in the now-defunct Strikeforce, she posed as a centerfold for FIGHT! magazine.

Although there was no nudity, shots of her in tight-fitting clothes were the subject of many a message-board thread.

Today, the UFC women’s bantamweight title challenger is far from being an unknown. She’s used to posing for the camera – even without clothing, which is how she appeared earlier this year for ESPN’s “Body Issue.”

She’s also is used to being a target. She’s played that role for more than a year as an opponent and rival of Ronda Rousey, whom she rematches on Saturday in the co-headliner of UFC 168 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

In a recent volley, Rousey told Jim Rome that Tate’s second chance is decidedly not about her talent.

“Miesha has a nice ass and an ongoing rivalry with me, and that’s the only reason she was picked for this fight,” said Rousey.

It might not be that cut and dried, though.

Rousey (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) was scheduled to fight Cat Zingano (8-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) on Saturday, but Zingano blew her knee out after besting Tate (13-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in a title eliminator. The UFC then placed Tate opposite Rousey on “The Ultimate Fighter 18? in advance of a rematch.

Of course, the pair have tremendously sellable rivalry. They’re also attractive women. It’s impossible to separate the two.

Rousey, in fact, has appeared in Maxim magazine and was the first female UFC fighter to shed clothing for ESPN’s “The Body Issue.”

Tate resolved not to let Rousey’s opinions get to her before she appeared on “TUF 18.” But in a recent interview, which was conducted before the champ’s appearance on Jim Rome, she explained her stance on female fighters and sexuality.

“I think it’s important to have a balance,” Tate said. “I think everybody has different boundaries and limitations. When someone like Sarah Kaufman or Sara McMann say they don’t want to use looks to promote themselves, it might be a little different than when I say the same thing. It can mean different things.”

For Tate, it means celebrating what makes her a woman, and what makes her a fighter.

“It’s not my goal to go out there and say, ‘Hey, I’m sexy, look at me, I can fight,’” she said. “I’ve always been feminine. I’ve always been proud of being a strong and empowered woman, and I don’t see anything wrong with embracing that. It just has to be tastefully done.”

What she doesn’t mean is the idea of a woman embodying their sexuality in the gym.

“That’s the thing that used to drive me crazy,” Tate said. “There used to be girls that came in there and would be very scantily dressed and would be trying to half-ass through the practice, but trying to get the guy’s attention. It would drive me crazy.

“If the girls are going to come in here, please don’t disrespect myself or the other women in the gym who work hard and go to fight practice by having your boobs falling out of your shirt and having your shorts so short that it leaves nothing to the imagination. You’ve got to be another training partner and one of the guys.”

Tate was exactly that when she joined her high school’s all-male wrestling team. She said the team’s coach didn’t want a girl on the squad and gave her no breaks in training. By the end of her senior year, however, she won the “coach’s award” and a state championship.

Tate went 6-2 under the Strikeforce banner with her only losses coming against Kaufman and Rousey. She currently is ranked at No. 3 below Zingano in the UFC’s top-10.

While she’s found great success in the cage, Tate is familiar with the consequences of being a sex symbol. Google her name, and the second suggestion that comes up is “Miesha Tate feet.”

“It’s really weird,” she said. “I think it’s very weird that there’s people out there that have a foot fetish. I get people that tweet me about my feet. There’s this one guy that doesn’t even speak English, and he writes me all the time. He’s like, ‘Miesha’ – he writes in really broken English – ‘Can I please smell your stinky feet?’ So creepy and weird.

“It’s just one of those things that I try not to pay a lot of attention to, because it really weirds me out. That’s obviously not my goal, to appease people with a foot fetish. But also, I have no control over it. I’m not going to hide my feet.”

On Saturday, she’ll be using them to attack Rousey, who is a huge favorite to win the rematch and retain her belt. No matter what the outcome, the two won’t drop out of the public eye any time soon. There will be plenty of photo-shoots, plenty of makeup, and plenty of opportunities to merge beauty and brawn.

Tate is fine with that. But she’ll only blur lines so far.

“I’m not into the lingerie and getting into bed, and too much of the sexual innuendo,” Tate said. “But I think it’s perfectly OK to be a beautiful and empowered woman and embrace that aspect of it. I have a boundary level that I don’t want to cross, but I have a comfortability level that I’m OK with.”

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