The MMA world is still reeling from the announcement that Miesha Tate’s first title defense will be against Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 and with good reason.
The decision to accept a fight with Nunes has drawn heavy criticism as many figured that a rematch with Holly Holm, who she defeated with a come-from-behind fifth-round submission to win the title at UFC 196, would be in order. However, Tate and her team have offered a number of different reasons as to why they didn’t give Holm a rematch.
Holm appeared on "The MMA Hour" to discuss being passed up for a title opportunity and it was evident that she was disappointed.
“I was kinda bummed out,” Holm revealed while also saying that she found out at the same time as the rest of the world that Tate accepted a fight with Nunes over a rematch. “I’ll keep training and who knows when they’ll give me another fight.”
Tate’s reasoning for not giving Holm an immediate rematch was that Holm wasn’t a “long-reigning champion” and that Nunes, who is currently riding a three-fight winning streak, was more deserving. But Holm wholeheartedly disagrees with that assessment.
“It wasn’t like she was dominating me,” Holm said. “I was ahead going into the last round. Yeah, she dominated me in round two but I think that’s why a rematch makes sense in my eyes and in most peoples' eyes. It wasn’t really one-sided.”
Holm does believe that the fact that the UFC booked Conor McGregor’s rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 200 certainly affected the decision, considering that McGregor-Diaz was the main event of UFC 196 and perhaps the UFC didn’t want to duplicate the main and co-main events again. Regardless, Holm believes that she deserved the opportunity to win back the title.
“A rematch makes the most sense,” Holm said. “I feel like our fight had more competitiveness than the main event did.”
Now, Holm is in an interesting position as she is the only ranked woman in the UFC women’s bantamweight division that doesn't have a fight booked.
“I thought they’d offer me Cat Zingano or Julianna Pena, but they ended up putting them against each other,” Holm said. “I don’t think [not booking me for a fight] makes sense. You would think they would want to throw me in the mix somewhere.”
Zingano also appeared on "The MMA Hour" and was just as baffled about Tate’s decision to face Nunes. More importantly, considering that Zingano has scored knockouts over both Tate and Nunes, she figured that her name would be called.
“If I were champion right now I would call out every single person who [beat] me,” Zingano said. “I was honestly surprised.”
But Zingano, who hasn’t fought since losing to Ronda Rousey in 14 seconds last February, understands that her absence is likely the reason she ended up not getting the fight. However, she won’t say that she doesn’t deserve it.
“I thought she might say [that she would want to avenge her loss to me] but it seems that I’m the only person she doesn’t want to fight right now,” Zingano said. “I beat Amanda and she fought her way back up and I beat Miesha and she fought her way back up. The UFC is typically not about deserving, it’s about earning and earning is different if you can talk the talk.”

At least she ended up with a fight.
As for Holm, she could have had a fight against Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino, who will be making her UFC debut against Leslie Smith at UFC 198 next month. However, she passed on the opportunity in hopes that the rematch would come to fruition.
“I’m really not against fighting Cris Cyborg but I was really hoping I’d get the rematch instead,” Holm said while admitting that she passed on fighting the Brazilian. “In the future maybe, but it wasn’t the right time.”
The only silver lining is that perhaps Holm is being sidelined for a Ronda Rousey return later this year. Her second-round knockout of the former champ still is a tantalizing dish for UFC fans.
“It’s very possible,” Holm said. “I don’t know what their thinking is but they are obviously a successful business for a reason. I’ll be ready either way if I have a rematch with Ronda or Tate, I’m going to train my butt off.”
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