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UFC Women's Bantamweight contender Miesha Tate appeared as a guest on
The MMA Hour and elaborated on her frustrations with the way the UFC is handling her career.
Below are some of the highlights from the interview, which you can watch in full at
MMAFighting.com.
On her frustration with the way UFC has been handling her career:
"I understand they have a job to do. They want to promote, they want to make fights that sell. I get it. But this is also my life and I'm not a robot and I'm not a puppet, and I'm not going to stand for something that I don't feel right about, that I don't agree with.
"The whole reason I do this sport is because I love it, and when the politics get in the way and they start messing s**t up -- excuse my language -- I'm just not going to stand for it. It's not why I got into fighting. It's not why I do what I do. And I'm not going to go out there and put on a crap performance in front of all my fans because I didn't feel right about it."
On her issues with her pay compared to Ronda Rousey's:
"It's not what I want, but I also know that I'm not going to -- there's just a point where it's not okay," Tate said. "I'm not willing to bend and I'm not willing to break. I'm a very, very stubborn person. I'm a very, very strong-willed person. I think I'm a fair person. I don't think I'm asking for too much. But again, too, I feel like Joe Rogan maybe said it best.
"He said, ‘you know, I get it, I completely sympathize with Miesha.' He's like, ‘I don't understand why there is such a big discrepancy between No. 1 and No. 2.' And he said Ronda made over $6 million according to Forbes just off of her fighting last year, and I'll tell you I made nowhere near, not even close to that, and yet they want me to fight higher-ranked and much better skilled opponents than Ronda is fighting? And she gets paid millions and I get paid pennies on the dollar?"
On her reaction to the fight she was offered after losing the Rousey title shot for no reason:
"They said, ‘would you be interested?' And I just said, ‘you know what, you guys' -- it was on a Fight Pass card, and I said, ‘this is not all (okay)," Tate said. "You guys go from taking a pay-per-view title fight and you want to offer me a fight on Fight Pass? I don't care who it is, I'm not fighting on Fight Pass at the moment. I understand Fight Pass is growing, but I was like, I've already done my Fight Pass fight with Rin Nakai. You know what I'm saying? It felt like another slap in the face, so I was just so frustrated that it just wasn't appealing to me whatsoever. It's nothing against Amanda. She's an amazing fighter, and I would love that fight at some point. I think we would put on a spectacular fight. But it's kind of like, when push comes to shove, my way of pushing back.
"Because again, Amanda is ranked fourth or fifth, and Holly is ranked ninth or something like that. Like I said, this is dumb. I'm not the champion, so why am I fighting girls tougher than Ronda for pennies on the dollar? Period. It's a matter of making a statement and just saying to the UFC, I'm not going to be pushed around into this so it's not going to happen unless you guys make some serious changes."
"It's either going to go up in flames or [White] is going to say that I'm making some valid points and make some adjustments," Tate said. "I'm pretty dead-set on what I feel like I deserve and what I want. I know what I want, and I'm just not going to take anything less. So I guess he's going to have to be prepared to deal with one stubborn woman."
