Hoffman Estates, IL– At 24 years old, Miesha “Takedown” Tate will take on current Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Marloes Coenen. After an injury set the fight back (originally scheduled on March 5th), Tate is ready to add another win to her already impressive 11-2 professional record. Can you remember what you were doing at 24?
We’ve certainly given you a few snippets on “Takedown” Tate. But, in preparation for the Coenen-Tate fight on Saturday, July 30th, we’ve put together a little preview.
Tate, a wrestling and Jiu Jitsu Specialist, fights out of Sacramento California for Team Alpha Male (pretty ironic, eh? Maybe they should change the name to Team Alpha FEmale!) In her eleven wins, Tate has amassed a Strikeforce Women’s Welterweight Tournament Championship, Freestyle Cage Fighting Women’s Bantamweight Championship, and was a BodogFIGHT 2007 Women’s Bantamweight Tournament Semifinalist. Her last loss was to Sarah Kaufmann at a Strikeforce Challengers show in 2009. Tate is currently the #5-ranked 135-pound female fighter according to the Unified Women’s MMA Rankings as well as Yahoo! Sports. To build on her strength in wrestling, Tate had an entire camp of wrestlers working her out. She is the SLIGHT underdog to Coenen. The one deciding factor? Tate thinks it’s her experience in wrestling.
Her opponent, Marloes Coenen is currently the #4-ranked pound-for-pound female MMA fighter in the world (ranked by MMARising.com) and the #1-ranked 135-pound female fighter according to the Unified Women’s MMA Rankings. She’s coming off of a 2 win streak over Sara Kaufman and Liz Carmouche (who interestingly enough just fought last week) Where she lacks in wrestling, she makes up in Dutch Submission Grappling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,Kickboxing, Muay Thai, and Shooto. Wow! Her fight record is 19-4. Um…DOUBLE wow?
With the future of Women’s MMA still a little cloudy, fighters like Tate and Coenen are really kicking butt (figuratively, that is) for the future of the sport. Unfortunately, too many folks are looking at WMMA as “a bunch of fighting babes” (you wouldn’t believe how many people came across our cage candy article after searching for ” hot MMA chicks” or something similar). So, it’s very refreshing to see two veteran fighters with so much technique and work ethic grounded in their fight game. Tate is proud to take on the responsibility of promoting Women’s Mixed Martial Arts in a male dominated world.
“It’s not my main goal to be the face of MMA, but I love the idea that I have the opportunity to play a huge role in women’s MMA, and I’d gladly accept that responsibility. I feel like I’m a good representation of it. I work hard. I’m going to go out there and fight. I’m happy when I can get out there and voice a little bit for the women.”
Good luck ladies! And remember, there are no losers when you’re growing such an awesome sport for the rest of us!
