Sherdog’s Top 10: Female Mixed Martial Artists

5. Miesha Tate

There was a time when people viewed Tate as something of a castoff, a good fighter who could never get over the hump of greatness. She had captured the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight championship by submitting grappling savant Marloes Coenen, but two decisive losses to archrival Ronda Rousey stood out like sore thumbs.

However, once Robert Follis took over the MMA team controls at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and assumed duties as Tate’s full-time trainer, “Cupcake” found another gear. She rattled off four straight decisions against credible opposition in Liz Carmouche, Rin Nakai, Sara McMann and Jessica Eye before being offered a crack at newly crowned women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm at UFC 196. In a tactical affair Holm was winning entering the fifth round, Tate scrambled to her back and put her to sleep with a rear-naked choke. Her place in history was cemented.

Disaster struck in Tate’s first title defense. She ran into Brazilian buzzsaw Amanda Nunes, who battered her with strikes before securing the submission via first-round rear-naked choke. At 29, Tate still has plenty of big fights in her future.

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