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Give Me Five
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Marc Wickert It’s
a warm Tuesday afternoon in California and Miesha Tate is down on the
boardwalk at Santa Cruz Beach with her boyfriend, Bryan Caraway (9-3-0),
who also celebrated a victory in his Strikeforce match last month.
“We’re just hanging out and enjoying ourselves,” says 21-year-old
Tate, who is currently on vacation from Olympia, Washington. At
15, Miesha took up wrestling as a freshman on the boys’ team because
she didn’t like basketball and wrestling was the only other sport
offered at Franklin Pierce High School. “I wrestled mainly guys,
but I did get the opportunity to wrestle quite a few girls at
tournaments.” Today,
Miesha is one of America’s most respected women’s MMA athletes in
the world’s fastest growing sport. And whilst many people think
of MMA as being mainly a men’s activity, it is through the highly
skilled young ladies, such as Tate, rising up through the ranks that
women’s bouts are also drawing more and more fans to the shows. Yet,
despite women’s matches often sharing the card with men’s bouts,
there usually are variances in the rules between the sexes.
“They’re the same for most parts, but sometimes they don’t allow
women to elbow on the ground, and women have three-minute rounds with a
minute-and-a-half break. I think that’s kinda silly because I
train with guys and I do exactly the same as they do, so for me it’s
not really fair because when you’re a ground person, you only get
three minutes to submit somebody.” Not
only do the shorter rounds and the longer breaks encourage women to
deliver stronger blows because they don’t have to pace themselves as
much as male fighters do, but Tate says she believes the women’s rules
unfairly favor the striker. “I think so. It takes more
time for the grappler to finish a fight: I can get a takedown in three
minutes, but to finish a fight with a submission in three minutes is a
lot tougher.” Miesha,
do you wear any extra protective gear, such as chest protection? “No,
I just wear a mouth guard.” You
mainly fight at 135lbs? “Correct.
That’s what I usually fight at; however I fought at 145 for my last
fight, but I do like to be at 135.” Hailing
from Olympia, Washington, have you encountered Jeff Monson? “I’ve
heard a lot about Jeff, but I haven’t met him. Bryan and Dennis
Hallman have trained with him.” Do
you still train at the Victory Athletics Gym? “Yes,
with Dennis Hallman.” You
are very powerful. Do you do a lot of weights? “I
do: I actually enjoy lifting weights. I know a lot of people
don’t, but it’s one of my favorite things to do.” What
exercises do you do? “I
like to mix it up and alternate my days. Mostly, I work out to
keep my muscles dense: I don’t want to be really bulky, but I want to
be strong. I don’t want to look like a guy, so usually I’ll
lift lighter weights with a lot of repetitions, and I try to be
explosive when I lift. For instance: on a bench press, I bring the
weight down really slowly and controlled, and then explode while pushing
it back up. That mimics the explosive power you need when you
fight. “I
prefer using free weights, as opposed to using machines, because then
you have to balance and control with your own muscles. I also do
squats, and power cleans – which I think are really important,
especially if you’re a wrestler or grappler, as it helps you with that
explosive power for the takedowns.”
Besides
grappling and sparring, what do you do for cardio? “I
run a lot and I alternate my days on that too. I do two days,
particularly when I’m getting ready for a fight, where I run in the
morning and lift lightly, then I’ll go to practice where I do
grappling and sparring. I run anywhere from three to five miles at
a slower pace, then on the next day I’ll run sprints and intervals.” I
have your MMA record as 3-1, with wins over Elaina Maxwell, Jan Finney
and Valerie Coolbaugh, and a loss to Kaitlin Young. Is that
correct? “Valerie
was technically an amateur fight – my last amateur fight, so it’s
really 2-1 for my pro record.” Can
you give a brief rundown of your win by unanimous decision over Elaina
Maxwell, please, Miesha? “My
game plan was to go out there and not give her any room to work her
stand-up, because I knew she was a very accomplished stand-up fighter
– one of the best in the world, so I went out and touched gloves,
immediately crowded her and got the takedown quickly, and then I worked
to pass the guard from there. I ended up getting mount through a
series of punches and went for the arm bar. Like I said, by the
time I got the arm bar to the point where she was just ready to tap, the
three-minute round ended. That was kinda frustrating because I
really wanted a first-round victory, but, you know, it doesn’t always
happen. “It
was pretty much the same thing in the second round: I didn’t give her
any space, I took her down and passed the guard, mounted her… She
ended up scissor-locking my head and I was still in mount, but I was
twisted backwards, so I decided to dismount and flatten her out on her
back whilst I maintained the side-mount position. “And
in the third round I rushed Elaina immediately, but I had a lot of
trouble taking her down off the cage. Half the round was already
over when the ref restarted us in the middle. I rushed her again,
but slipped down her legs and she got a leg hook in; however she
wasn’t able to do any damage or advance off of that position.
The round ended shortly after, leading to a unanimous decision for
me.” Do
you prefer to fight on the ground? “Yes.
I’m not opposed to standing, by any means; I just know it’s smarter
for me to take the fight to the ground because in most of my fights,
that’s where I’m going to have the advantage unless my opponent is a
very developed blackbelt in jiu jitsu. Even if my stand-up was
better than the person’s I was fighting, my ground is probably still
going to be where I have a greater advantage.” Who
coaches you? “Dennis
Hallman is my head coach, but Brian Caraway has also been my coach for
quite a while and he’s a phenomenal wrestler; we both come from
wrestling backgrounds, and his style is the way I want to develop my
style.” When
do you fight next? “I
wish I had something set in stone, but I don’t at the moment. I
just have a couple of things penciled in – possibly something in my
hometown on August 30 or something else in California on August 22.
One of the two I’m hoping will pan out. I don’t have any
opponents, though. The opponent I did have set up for August 30
ended up backing out after my fight with Elaina, so I don’t have any
opponents lined up: That’s the problem, bit I am competing in the
Olympic National Trials on September 13th. If I place
in the top two, I’ll be heading to Switzerland for the USA Olympic
team.” What
is your MMA goal? “To
be the best in the world. I want to be a very skillful and
developed fighter; for people to know who I am and to see all the hard
work that goes into the sport; and I want to represent women’s MMA in
a respectful manner; for people to see me and take women’s MMA
seriously.” Your
sponsors? “House
of Pain, Pure Med Spa (Spokane Valley Mall), Caged Steel, Henchmen,
Beautiful Bruisers, Hit ’Em Up, Conquer Wear, Fearless, Devastation,
Skull Krack, Fight Chix, Beat Down, and Assault.” Miesha,
is there anything you’d like to add? “I
know I’m young and I still have a lot to learn, but I’d like to say
thank you to the fans for all their support, and thank you to Victory
Athletics, Yakima MMA, and my friends and family. I hope you can
come along to see my next fight when it’s announced.”
For
more on Miesha Tate: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=30656736. For
more on Strikeforce: www.strikeforce.net.
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