Opinion: Does Miesha Tate Have a Point?

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Miesha Tate is not happy.

More than two months have passed since the No. 1 contender for Ronda Rousey’s Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight title saw her promised rematch ripped from under her in favor of seventh-ranked Holly Holm. Tate hasn’t been booked for a fight and has been very vocal about her frustration with everything from the discrepancy in pay to what it will take for her to get another crack at Rousey.

She has described her MMA career being “in limbo” and has even gone so far as suggesting the possibility of retirement if things don’t change for her soon. Does she have a leg to stand on?

On the surface, it surely seems like Tate has a reasonable gripe. She’s the No. 1 contender for the title and is watching an unproven fighter ranked beneath her get an opportunity to be champion. The way that it was handled -- Tate didn’t even get a courtesy call from the UFC before being pulled out of the fight -- is certainly something with which you can empathize. Also, the fact that Tate is not making anywhere near as much as Rousey despite being the only fighter to take her out of the first round can be seen as a sign of disrespect.

However, even though her gripes may ring true to a certain degree, the reality is that she isn’t necessarily in the driver’s seat when it comes to negotiating. Retirement isn’t really a threat that will move UFC President Dana White to put her into a world title fight or increase her pay.

The fundamental problem here is that Rousey is so far ahead of the competition that it is hard to justify anybody earning close to the amount the champion is raking in. There’s a reason why Rousey took home a reported $6 million from fighting in 2014. Her popularity extends beyond the Octagon, and she is unequivocally the biggest star in mixed martial arts today. Honestly, without Rousey, Tate and the rest of the ladies of MMA would probably still be toiling in relative obscurity while waiting for White to have a change of heart about women in the Octagon.

Obviously, Tate was the dance partner Rousey needed to get the UFC’s attention, but that really could have been anybody. As Rousey has proven since defeating Tate to become Strikeforce champion in 2012, nobody has come close to stopping her. Sure, Tate making it out of the first round was a moral victory, but she really hasn’t provided significant opposition to Rousey’s reign of terror. The Mike Tyson comparisons Rousey has drawn are well-earned. It didn’t matter who Tyson fought as long as they were pounded into dust. Rousey is pretty much in the same position, and Holm is just a new face for her to torch.

Ultimately, it boils down to business. There’s no doubt in the minds of most people that Tate is the second best women’s bantamweight in the world. However, the gulf between the two fighters is about as wide as the distance between two planets. Fight fans don’t want to watch Tate go 0-10 against Rousey because that simply isn’t fun. White suggesting that Tate needs to win a few more fights is essentially his telling “Cupcake” that the UFC will only put her back into the Octagon with Rousey if there is literally nobody left for her to fight. Is it disheartening? Sure, but that’s just how these things go.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. “retired” undefeated, but Marcos Maidana arguably gave him more trouble than any other fighter since Jose Luis Castillo. Does that mean Maidana should get as many chances as he wants until he wins? No, but Maidana, in facing Mayweather, made more money than he ever had before and has been enjoying the fruits of his labor ever since. Tate doesn’t have that luxury.

The financial discrepancy is a much bigger issue that Tate cannot tackle alone. Pay is something about which many fighters have complained, and it will neither start nor end with the No. 1 contender in the women’s bantamweight division.

So what should Tate do? Honestly, there isn’t much she can do outside of weighing her options and deciding whether or not continuing her MMA career is really worth her time. It’s frustrating, but until someone in the division pulls a James “Buster” Douglas on Rousey, this is how it’s going to be. Tate is going to have to face tough competition without the promise of a title shot in her future. She’ll be offered the main event of a UFC Fight Pass card rather than headlining a pay-per-view. Perhaps she should campaign for a fight against Cristiane Justino to see whether or not the woman who is considered a significant threat to Rousey is for real.

Tate is in a tough spot, but the only way to dig her self out of the hole is to roll with the punches and take advantage of the opportunity to dethrone Rousey if and when it finally presents itself again. Until then, she can be stubborn in her negotiating tactics but really doesn’t have much leverage.

Andreas Hale is a content producer for Jay Z’s LifeandTimes.com and editor-in-chief of PremierWuzHere.com, as well as a frequent Sherdog.com columnist. Check out his archive here.