Miesha Tate replaces injured Cat Zingano for coaches role on TUF 18
by John Haigh @JohnBJayHaigh
Filming for season 18 of TUF Rousey vs. Zingano began on Tuesday but there was a huge shock in store for UFC women’s champ Ronda Rousey. Cat Zingano blew her knee out while training on May 16th.
Rousey did not know about Zingano’s injury... nobody did, it was a very well kept secret by the UFC and when Miesha Tate walked out in the UFC training centre she was clearly shocked and stormed out of the gym looking for UFC President Dana White. She later said she was angry because she thought she was the one being replaced, apparently?
Rousey, though, was pleased with the change.
“This is what we really wanted all along,” Rousey told Yahoo! Sports. “Everyone said an Ultimate Fighter between me and Miesha would be the best. We have a personal history with each other and this is a personal show. For some reason, me and Miesha are intertwined in fate like Ali and Frazier or something like that."
“I think people will look back at this as one of the monumental rivalries and look back at this as one of those things that really cemented women’s MMA.”
Tate said she was disappointed that it had took an injury to Zingano to get the spot on the show but felt she was winning the fight with Zingano when referee Kim Winslow stopped the fight. A lot of people agree with Tate it was a fight full of controversy that we at Kingdom MMA took time to discuss – http://www.kingdommma.co.uk/2013/04/kingdom-mma-roundtable-on-talking.html
Tate said she was thrilled to not only get the spot on the show but also the shot at the tittle and to see Rousey get visibly angry when she appeared.
“It was rewarding to see that,” she said. “I was like, ‘Yay! This is getting good.’ I watched her go to her corner and her corner was up in arms. I was just sitting there in the doorway thinking, ‘This is awesome.’"
“I felt I was cheated a little in that fight with Cat. I had two solid rounds and one not-so-good round. Either way, I felt I was meant to be here and it’s come full circle.”
Season 18 of TUF will be on our screens in September and is part of the new Fox Sports 1 channel in the states, I believe this will be on BT Sports in the UK as part of the new TV deal. The coaches are slated to fight December 28th and that fight could turn out to be one of the most anticipated fights of the year.
This is also the first season to feature women coaches with men and women’s divisions in the competition.
Added to that the rivalry between the two coaches, these two really don’t like each other and have history as Rousey took the title from Tate under the now defunct Strikeforce promotion in 2011. It was that fight which got UFC president Dana White’s interest in women’s fighting. To that point, White had maintained that the UFC would be men-only.
Zingano underwent surgery on her right knee on Tuesday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus, as well as to clean up other damage. She said she injured the knee as she came down after clearing a short hurdle.
“I was doing my regular routine, my strength and conditioning,” Zingano told Yahoo! Sports by telephone shortly before she was wheeled into surgery. “I was jumping over tunnels that were about 12 inches high. I’d jumped over them like 10 times already. This one time, I jumped up and my left knee came down right on track and my right knee bent outward."
Zingano said she will be able to resume training in six to nine months. She said the most crushing part of the injury is that she will lose the opportunity to fight Rousey for the belt. She said White promised her she would have the first shot at the Tate-Rousey winner.
Dana white said it made more sense for Tate to fill the spot on the show rather than one of the others in the UFC’s women’s division.
“But with Miesha, she and Ronda already had a great fight and they have a history together. They don’t like each other. We’ll make it work. We always do. You know how I say every day when I wake up, I know some bad [expletive] is going to happen? Well, this was one of them, but we’re doing the best we can here.”
Expect an explosive season with these two coaching and the men and women competing on the show all living under one roof.
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