Former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champions Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey had one of the biggest rivalries in all of female MMA.
Rousey’s longtime coach in Edmond Tarverdyan recently requested that Rousey fight UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino, a request that has raised the ire of Tate.
“I’m going give Cyborg a round of applause, because she wouldn’t look more like a bully than if she took that fight with Ronda,” Tate said on her Sirius XM radio show. “That would be ridiculous. It’s just nonsense to even think about that. I can't believe that Edmond would suggest something so asinine.”
Tate and Rousey fought each other twice, with Rousey winning both times at Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Tate and UFC 168.
The former women’s bantamweight champion even claims that Tarverdyan wants Rousey to fight so he can deal with his own financial issues.
“It’s just kind of silly,” Tate said. “I think Edmond just wants another payday so he can try to pay off his bankruptcy issues, because Jiminy Christmas. Poor Ronda. I’m not her biggest fan, but I wouldn’t even want to see that fight. I’m not her biggest fan, but I wouldn’t want to see her get slaughtered by Cyborg at this point in her career, either. It’s not appealing. That’s not what this sport is about. It’s about great competitive matchups and I just don’t feel like it’s even fair to ask for something like that. If you were looking out for your athlete, why would you do that?”
There has been no update from Rousey regarding her future in MMA, but Fightful has previously reported that she has started training for a possible run in the WWE.
