Miesha Tate Discusses Importance of One on TNT Cards, Finding Motivation for UFC Return

“Cupcake” believes the time is right for her mixed martial arts return.

Last week, news broke about the return of Miesha Tate (18-7, 5-4 UFC), who will dust off the gloves after a five-year hiatus. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight queen is now set to face Marion Reneau at an upcoming card that will go down on July 17. It will be the first fight for “Cupcake” since Raquel Pennington handed her a unanimous decision loss at UFC 205 in November 2016. While talking with Sherdog, Tate explained that she arrived at her decision to come back after the COVID-19 outbreak.

“About nine months ago, I decide I wanted to come back, but I didn’t want to make any kind of announcement because I wasn’t sure if it was realistic or not,” she said. “Obviously, I wanted to make sure that I can physically hack it, that I can handle it. You know, having two kids, I had a lot of questions I need to make sure before I get anybody’s hopes up or anything like that. That’s what I did, and I answered all those questions, and it was good. But now I feel great, so it’s been a working progress.”

In the previous three years, Tate worked as a vice-president for One Championship. While she gave her 30-day notice to the Singapore-based promotion as soon as she announced her cage return, she spent a few words to promote the upcoming One on TNT series of events.

“It’s a huge step in the right direction,” she added. “One Championship wanted to throw an event in the U.S. at the end of 2020, but obviously, the pandemic really kind of threw all that out the window. This One on TNT is the first time really that One Championship will be focusing on the U.S. market, and it will be able to care to that. Having air on TNT at a primetime, it will start at 10 p.m. ET. It’s going to be really special, these four events with all of One Championship’s biggest stars.”

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog begun in 2018 and now he covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @Tudor_leo.