Credit to Miesha Tate for trying to push things to the limit during this second MMA run. This is all icing on the (cup)cake after she spent five years in retirement and was thought by many to never be seen again in a competitive setting again.
To come back and beat Marion Reneau, who was 44 years old and fighter her retirement bout, was one thing. Getting past Vieira was a much steeper task, and Tate (19-8 MMA, 6-5 UFC) was unable to get it done.
She at least tried, though. Tate could’ve easily attempted to pick and choose easier matchups during this comeback stint, but that’s never been her approach. She wants to fight for and win that UFC women’s bantamweight title she held back in 2016, but this fight signified her ambitions as too lofty.
Tate did not get blown out of the water by any means against Vieira. She made it competitive over the course of five rounds, but her skillset doesn’t have that next gear needed to get a definitive upper hand on this next generation of talent.
That doesn’t mean Tate should slither back into retirement. There’s still money to be made and sellable fights to be had for her. And in fact, the thin nature of her division makes it impossible to state with 100 percent conviction that she has no chance of stringing together the right set of victories to get a title shot (though a rematch with Amanda Nunes might go worse than the first).
Tate is largely beloved within the sport so it’s easy to understand why people were rooting for her to climb the mountain again. Her desire to deliver on that is admirable, too. The game changed quite a bit during her absence, though, and Vieira offered a reality check to Tate about how difficult her goals will be to achieve.
