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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Miesha Tate has been in the cage with both Ronda Rousey and Cat Zingano, and after Zingano secured her shot against Rousey on Saturday with a win over Amanda Nunes, Tate says she expects another easy win for the UFC Women's Champ.
"I think that Ronda is going to win the fight," Tate said in an interview with The UG's Jonathan Shrager (transcribed by BloodyElbow.com). "Zingano starting slow two fights in a row is not going to serve her well with Ronda, who is a fight-finishing machine. She finishes fights in the first round. You can't come out to a slow pace and expect to get out of a round with Ronda Rousey."
"Her physical presence suggests that she is really strong, but I didn't feel that during my fight with her. It didn't feel like she was superiorly stronger than any fighter I had faced before. I'm not saying she can't win the fight. I've been in there with both and I think the explosive power of Rousey will beat Cat to the punches in every area and that should be enough to keep the title."
After Zingano gets her fight with Rousey, Tate still wants her rematch with Zingano, as it's a loss she hopes to avenge in 2015.
"I still want that rematch," Tate said. "I've been saying that, and I know she's there for her title fight and she can have that. After that I'd like to have a chance to avenge the loss. I still saw holes in her game. I still saw weaknesses in her game. I want to fight her again."
Penick's Analysis: Tate's assessment is fair, and I think most who watched on Saturday look at that first few minutes Zingano had against Nunes and believe she probably wouldn't have gotten out of there had it been Rousey. Zingano's extremely talented in a number of areas, but Tate's right here in that a slow start like that is a death blow to your chances against Rousey. Zingano's got a huge challenge ahead of her here, and if she doesn't get past Rousey, that rematch with Tate will be a sensible matchup for the UFC to make later in the year.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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