Miesha Tate will be moving to Singapore to work with ONE Championship.
Chatri Sityodtong today announced that Tate has accepted a Vice President role with the promotion and will make the move to Singapore in early 2019.
“It is both an honor and a privilege to announce that women’s mixed martial arts world champion Miesha Tate will be joining ONE Championship as Vice President. Miesha has been an incredible pioneer for the sport, and has been an inspiration for many young men and women. I look forward to welcoming Miesha to her new home in Singapore!”
Miesha Tate stated that she is “thrilled to join ONE Championship as a Vice President.”
“I truly believe in its mission of unleashing real-life superheroes who ignite the world with hope, strength, dreams, and inspiration. I’m honored to bring my experience as a World Champion and to help inspire the next generation of athletes. And of course, I am excited to relocate to my new home, Singapore, and travel throughout Asia!”
Post-Retirement
Tate retired from mixed martial arts only eight months after her spectacular fifth-round submission victory against Holly Holm at UFC 196 that saw her claim the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship. After being defeated by Raquel Pennington at UFC 205 in November 2016, Tate shocked fans by announcing her retirement in a post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.
“I love you all so much, I’ve been doing this for over a decade. Thank you so much for being here, I love this sport forever but it’s not my time anymore.”
The retirement was especially unexpected considering that Tate had only just lost the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship to Amanda Nunes, the current champion, four months earlier.
Tate clarified that her decision to retire was “because of the result” of the fight.
“I had a lot more to give, but I couldn’t pull it out of myself. It’s been a long time, taking a lot of punishment. I still love this sport, I love you guys, thank you so much, but this is it for me.”
But no one could ever be certain about Tate’s future, with or without mixed martial arts, considering she never explicitly ruled out returning to the cage.
In June this year, Tate shared on SiriusXM Rush that she was never planning to retire at that time.
“I didn’t know I was going to retire when I retired. I very much live by the way my heart tells me to go and when I retired I knew that my heart was telling me this was no longer an option for me.”
Tate has since started a family with partner Johnny Nunez and gave birth to a baby girl in June.
Nunez explained to John Hyon Ko of Kumite Radio that the labor was an intense 72 hour period and not the 67 hours that was previously reported. He also discussed the challenges of parenthood and shared that he and Tate wouldn’t be able to raise their child if they were both fighting.
Tate has existing ties with ONE Championship already and has previously trained with Angela Lee, the ONE atomweight champion.
Tate’s decision to work with ONE Championship caps off what has been an exciting few weeks for ONE Championship, who recently announced the addition of Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson to their roster.