Miesha Tate on Ronda Rousey's return: If your heart's not in it, MMA's 'a dangerous sport'

Miesha Tate said she has no way of knowing if fellow ex-UFC champ Ronda Rousey’s heart is really into her upcoming return to the cage. If it’s not, Tate said, MMA can prove to be a very dangerous sport.

Rousey (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC), of course, returns at UFC 207 from a yearlong layoff that followed a title loss to Holly Holm in late 2015. She meets reigning UFC women’s bantamweight title holder Amanda Nunes (13-4 MMA, 6-1 UFC) – who beat Tate, who had defeated Holm – at the Dec. 30 pay-per-view event at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

Tate (18-6 MMA, 5-3 UFC), who’s No. 3 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA women’s bantamweight rankings, will be watching closely when No. 1 Nunes meets No. 2 Rousey at the year-end blockbuster show. Tate, who must first get by Raquel Pennington (8-5 MMA, 5-2 UFC) at UFC 205 on Nov. 12, obviously wants a shot to reclaim the belt, but she’s especially interested in a third fight with Rousey, who’s defeated Tate twice before.

Tate knows it’s a “race against the clock” on that potential match. Rousey recently said the Nunes fight could be one of the last of her career, and Tate said she understands why women’s MMA’s biggest star is getting an immediate title shot upon her return. Still, Tate said Rousey could’ve benefited from a three-round non-title fight to shake off the cobwebs from the Holm loss before challenging again for the belt.

“Because ring rust is a real thing,” Tate said during a recent media luncheon that was covered by our partners at Champions.co. “It definitely can affect fighters, and you don’t know how mentally – really, she’s been out of the limelight, and none of us are really involved in her personal life, so you don’t know how she’s dealing with that (Holm) loss since then.

” … The only thing I can say is that I question how much she really wants to be doing this. And I can say that if you don’t really want to do it, then it’s going to affect your ability to train and push that extra bit in training and in practice. If you don’t really want to do it, if you don’t really want to be there – and I’m not seeing she does or doesn’t, so I can’t say that – but I can say that if your heart’s not really into it, it’s kind of a dangerous sport to play with in that sense.”

So which UFC 207 headliner does Tate want to win and possibly fight next? She said she has a clearly “vested” interest in the outcome, but does she have a preference?

“Well, it depends who has the belt,” Tate said. “That’s my No. 1 goal. I want to fight them both again, but I have more of a sense of urgency to want to fight Ronda because I don’t know when she’s … going to leave this sport. I think Amanda will be here for some time.”

Check out the full interview above.

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