When Dana White announced that the next coaches for TUF ( The Ultimate Fighter) would be two women and one of them would be Ronda Rousey, fans were ecstatic. Fans were more excited to find out that Miesha Tate would more than likely be opposite Rousey in the coaching jobs. All she had to do is beat undefeated prospect Cat Zingano, which she almost accomplished.
Tate came out aggressive like she always does and easily won the first two rounds. Tate’s cardio started to play a big role in the third round and Zingano’s heart and power were able to put Tate away in the third via elbows and knees.
Now a knee injury has forced Cat Zingano (1-0 UFC) to withdraw from her upcoming coaching spot on Season 18 of “The Ultimate Fighter” and a title fight with UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey.
Zingano is a tough woman with a heart of gold, but I personally don’t think that she would’ve delivered a TUF show for the ratings. Let’s be real. The only real TUF season’s that have worked well as far as ratings go, are the one’s where the coaches absolutely hate each other.
Rashad Evans and “Rampage” Jackson, Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock, B.J. Penn and Jens Pulver, any season with Michael Bisping. The list goes on and on. Coaches that can’t stand each other, equals ratings.
Ronda Rousey versus Cat Zingano would’ve been like having Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen. You think it’s going to be a good back and forth battle, and instead they just respect one another. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but when you get guys like Uriah Faber opposite Dominick Cruz, you get ratings. The first season of TUF woman coaches needs to deliver.
It’s no secret that Rousey and Tate dislike one another, and they will definitely bring in the ratings. The best part is I expect this season to be one of the top rated seasons with men and woman watching all over the world. The feud between these two has a lot of unfinished business. You can expect that after this season and their fight, that they will get it all out there, leaving nothing behind.
“This is what we really wanted all along,” Rousey told Yahoo! Sports. “Everyone said an ‘Ultimate Fighter’ between me and Miesha would be the best. We have a personal history with each other and this is a personal show. For some reason, me and Miesha are intertwined in fate like Ali and Frazier or something like that. I think people will look back at this as one of monumental rivalries and look back at this as one of those things that really cemented women’s MMA.”
Woman’s MMA has never really had a huge rivalry and this has all the works to be the first and best one ever. This has all the potential to be the “Tito/Shamrock” of woman’s TUF.
Zingano will still get her title shot down the line, but we needed to see the unfinished business between Tate and Rousey. TUF 18 will be one of the best season’s of TUF because of men and women in the same house. But now that we have these coaches, this show has all the potential to be a war.
I hope Zingano heals up and we see her back soon, but we needed to see this happen. It just sucks that she had to get injured for this to come to fruition.