Miesha Tate explains why she didn't step in against Aspen Ladd at UFC on ESPN 27, open to future booking

As tempting as it was to save the UFC on ESPN 27 co-main event, Miesha Tate knew it wouldn’t have been a good idea.

Tate (19-7 MMA, 6-4 UFC) returned from an almost five-year layoff to score a third-round TKO win over Marion Reneau in the co-main event of UFC on ESPN 26 in July and was aiming to get at least one more fight in 2021.

That opportunity came a lot faster than she expected when Macy Chiasson withdrew from the UFC on ESPN 27 co-main event just two days before the fight, leaving Aspen Ladd in need of an opponent. Ladd called Tate out on Twitter and while the former UFC bantamweight champion considered it, she had less than 48 hours to make the weight just one week after she fought.

“Of course I thought about it,” Tate told MMA Junkie. “I was like midway through a cinnamon roll, and I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ I kid you not. I was halfway through a cinnamon roll. I got the message and it was like Thursday, 6 p.m. The weigh-ins were Friday at 9 a.m. I went and stepped on the scale, and I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea’ – not so much the fight; the fight was a very intriguing – but just making sure I could be a true professional, show up, make weight. You’ve got to factor all that stuff in.

“I had taken the whole week off. I was in the worst diet part. That one week, it’s like the one week you get to just eat all the food that you want and relax and whatever. So I called my coaches, and I said, ‘I’m thinking about doing this. Am I crazy?’ They’re like, ‘You’re crazy – just trying to make the weight by next morning,’ all these things. So they’re like, ‘Do it at a later date.’ It was one of those things that we thought as a collective team that it was probably smarter to wait.”

With Tate having aspirations of reclaiming the belt, third-ranked Ladd (9-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) would be the perfect fight to springboard her to that opportunity. Ladd is currently rebooked to face Chiasson on Oct. 2, but Tate is open to facing Ladd down the line.

“I really considered it because I like the matchup,” Tate said. “I have a lot of respect for Aspen Ladd. I think she’s a great opponent and very different. She likes to come forward, she’s aggressive, and I love that kind of fight because it always brings out the best in me – as opposed to Marion, who’s more technically sound and calculated and she likes to stay away until she can get what she wants done. Aspen Ladd is very different than that, and I hope that we can get that fight at some point. I would really like that.”