Meisha Tate hasn’t lost since her last defeat at the hands of Ronda Rousey and since that time she’s defeated 3 top 5 opponents, yet it’s proven to not be enough to impress Dana White and the other UFC execs.
Dana White told the LA Times the reasoning behind his choice of Holly Holm as an opponent for Rousey at UFC 195 instead of the afore-mentioned Meisha Tate.
“We were talking about Miesha from the start, then as we started sitting around we were saying, ‘Everyone has seen the Miesha fight already,’ ” White said. “A third fight in a rivalry usually comes after the stuff we’d see in [Arturo] Gatti-[Micky] Ward. With Miesha, the result has been the same twice. Everyone’s already seen that fight.”
Adan went on to explain how this decision could help Tate:
“Theres two sides to the coin,” White said. … “I’m not sure losing another fight to Ronda so soon would be good for Miesha. She’s not going anywhere. I think she’ll be fine.”
Dana also has a message for those fans who say that Holly Holm isn’t ready for Ronda:
“Everyone has jitters in their first fight. Holly came back from that and destroyed a woman who’d looked damn good in her previous fights,” White said. “When you talk about the possibilities of what Holly can do … she’s a world-class boxer … the Holly Holm fight for Ronda is way more intriguing.”
It’s easy to see the growth between Holly’s first fight in the octagon and her second fight, but neither seem to have stood out as a performance worthy enough to jump 8 spots in the rankings and become an immediate title contender. We all know that Rousey fans will watch regardless of opponent (aka the Mayweather effect), so it’s very hard to justify rushing Holm into this fight. Holm hasn’t proven herself to be skilled on the mat and Ronda’s MMA striking is proving to be better than Holly’s world-class boxing, Ronda has 3 KOs, while Holm hasn’t notched one.
Seems like Dana will have to defend this decision up until January 2nd because fans and media members aren’t buying it.