After an injury that forced undefeated Cat Zingano to undergo knee surgery, Ronda Rousey will now square off against long-time rival, Miesha Tate, in her next Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title defense, in a highly-anticipated rematch.
Zingano was slated to take on the women's bantamweight champion, tentatively scheduled for the December 28th pay-per-view, as well as coach one of teams for the "The Ultimate Fighter" (TUF) reality series against Rousey. But doctors worked on Zingano's right knee, yesterday, to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus, as well as to clean up other damage.
"I was doing my regular routine, my strength and conditioning. I was jumping over tunnels that were about 12 inches high," said Zingano to Yahoo! Sports. "I jumped up and my left knee came down right on track and my right knee bent outward. Snap, crackle, pop, and I hit the floor. That was all she wrote. It was terrible. It hurt bad, but the thing that bothered me most was the sound. I never experienced anything like that."
UFC President Dana White felt that Tate was the right opponent for Rousey despite having lost her last match to Zingano, via a third round TKO.
"She'd probably won the first two rounds of that fight with Cat and if it had gone to the cards, she'd probably have won by decision," said White. "But with Miesha, she and Ronda already had a great fight and they have a history together. They don't like each other."
TUF, which began filming yesterday, will debut in September on the new all-sports channel, Fox Sports 1. Tate and Rousey will coach both male and female contestants vying for a UFC contract.
This would be the second time Rousey faces Tate, having previously defeated Tate, in 2011, for the women's Strikeforce bantamweight title (see video), via submission, with a vicious arm-bar. Both fighters expressed a dislike for each other, in the build-up to the first fight and bad blood is still lingering between both of them.
"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."