Uncharted territory awaits
Miesha
Tate.
The former
Strikeforce
and
Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight titleholder
will downshift to 125 pounds for the first time when she meets
Lauren
Murphy in a featured
UFC on ABC 3 attraction this Saturday at the UBS Arena in
Elmont, New York. Tate enters the cage having lost three of her
past four bouts. She last competed at UFC Fight Night 198, where
she wound up on the wrong side of a five-round unanimous decision
against
Ketlen
Vieira in their Nov. 20 headliner. Murphy, meanwhile, has
pieced together five wins in six outings. She last fought on Sept.
25, when she succumbed to elbows and punches from reigning women’s
flyweight champion
Valentina
Shevchenko in the fourth round of their UFC 266 co-main
event.
As Tate and Murphy approach their intriguing battle in a top-heavy
division, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them
to this point:
35: Years of age for Tate, who was born on Aug. 18, 1986 in Tacoma,
Washington.
7: Tate wins by submission, accounting for 37% of her career total
(19). Her methods of choice: three armbars, one triangle choke, one
shoulder choke, one arm-triangle choke and one rear-naked choke.
Tate owns four other wins by knockout or technical knockout (21%)
and eight more by decision (42%).
225,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Tate across her 11
appearances in the UFC. She has been awarded “Fight of the Night”
on two occasions and “Performance of the Night” on two others.
4: First-round finishes on the Tate resume. She took care of
Jamie Lynn
Welsh with punches in 2:21 at a CageSport show on Nov. 29,
2008, buried
Jessica
Bednark with punches in 82 seconds at Freestyle Cage Fighting
27 on Jan. 31, 2009, submitted
Dora
Baptiste with a triangle choke in 1:48 at an Atlas Fights event
on Feb. 21, 2009 and dispatched
Valerie
Coolbaugh with an armbar in 4:55 at Freestyle Cage Fighting 38
on Jan. 16, 2010.
107: Combined victories between the seven opponents—Vieira,
Ronda
Rousey (twice),
Amanda
Nunes,
Raquel
Pennington,
Cat Zingano,
Sarah
Kaufman and
Kaitlin
Young—who have defeated Tate. They sport a cumulative .728
winning percentage (107-39-1).
38: Years of age for Murphy, who was born on July 27, 1983 in
Anchorage, Alaska.
8: Murphy victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 53% of her career total (15). Her list of UFC victims:
Mara
Romero Borella and
Kelly
Faszholz. Murphy holds one other victory by submission (7%)—she
put away
Liliya
Shakirova with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their
UFC 254 pairing in 2020—and six more by decision (40%).
95: Significant strikes landed by Murphy in her third-round
technical knockout of Faszholz at UFC Fight Night 83 in February
2016. It remains the high-water mark for the former
Invicta Fighting Championships titleholder.
17: Seconds needed for Murphy to chop down
Kloiah
Wayland with punches in her pro debut under the Alaska Fighting
Championship flag on June 9, 2010. Having occurred more than 12
years ago, it remains her quickest stoppage to date.
.743: Cumulative winning percentage between the five
opponents—Shevchenko,
Sijara
Eubanks,
Katlyn
Chookagian,
Liz
Carmouche and
Sara
McMann—who have beaten Murphy. They boast a combined record of
78-27.