UFC 196 is just a couple of days away and the anticipation is at an all-time high. The headliner for this event is not a title fight, but the co-main event is. Holly Holm will defend her bantamweight title against Miesha Tate and she is fine with the fact that she is not headlining.
Instead of being upset about not headlining, Holm is more focused on defending her title and not being a one-hit wonder. Holm defeated Ronda Rousey in her last fight, and Rousey - before Holm knocked her out - looked unbeatable. Now Holm wants to shed the thought that she may just be remembered for that one fight instead of building on it.
Tate, Holm's next opponent, has gotten title shots before but she has yet to come through and win any of them. She has lost to Rousey on two separate occasions and because of that Holm is the favorite to retain her belt. Tate, however, believes that she matches up very well with Holm and even went as far as to say she might be the champ's "kryptonite."
The 29-year-old fighter believes that she is "the worst matchup Holly could ask for" because she plans to put a lot of pressure on her. Tate was not impressed with Rousey's performance in her loss to Holm and believes that the fact that she lost to Rousey twice is irrelevant. She could not reiterate enough just how excited she is about the matchup, saying she loves "everything about it."
Some people may think that this fight won't be very good because Holm is facing off against a fighter who lost to the person she just beat twice. Tate though, is extremely motivated in this one because she was in line to get a third shot at Rousey before Dana White ultimately went with Holm. Tate was the No. 1 contender for the bantamweight championship, so she expected the title shot, but when she found out it wasn't her she decided to use that as motivation after a brief period of sadness.
While Tate didn't get that third shot at Rousey, she still expects to be able to fight her again. If Tate does upset Holm on Saturday night, she wants her next opponent to be Rousey so that she can prove the first two fights were flukes. Rousey has said she "needs" to be the one to beat Holm, but Tate seems extremely confident that it will be her taking the title on Saturday.
