Free Fight! Tate Submits Holm, Becomes UFC Champion

After over five years away from the cage, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Bantamweight champion Miesha Tate will make her return to action later tonight (Sat., July 17, 2021) to face off against Marion Reneau in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 31 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Before then, let’s take a trip down Memory Lane to see “Cupcake’s” last win inside the Octagon, which was the biggest of her mixed martial arts (MMA) career. In March 2016, Tate founds herself squaring off against Holly Holm at UFC 196, who at the time was the division champion and was coming off a stellar knockout win over Ronda Rousey. Tate, meanwhile, was on a four fight win streak with her last win coming against Rousey.

Throughout the fight, both women had shining moments with Holm utilizing her boxing while Tate evaded as best she could to control the fight with her wrestling. It was truly a close fight throughout the first 23 minutes of the fight before Tate was able to lock in a rear-naked choked with 90 seconds remaining in the bout, putting the boxing champion to sleep.

Of course, Tate’s title run was short-lived because she ran into Amanda Nunes in her first defense, losing via first round submission, Tate then went on to lose to Raquel Pennington in her next fight and eventually called it a career. Now, she is looking to return to her winning ways five years removed from her last fight.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 31 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN/ESPN+ preliminary card bouts at 7 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN/ESPN+ main card start time at 10 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 31 news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive here. For the complete “Makhachev vs. Moises” fight card and ESPN/ESPN+ lineup click here.