LAS VEGAS — Miesha Tate is the new UFC bantamweight champion after the longest women’s bantamweight championship fight in UFC history at UFC 196.
Tate finally landed a takedown in the fifth round and got Holm’s back. She sunk in a standing choke, and when Holm attempted to flip Tate off, Tate sunk the choke in further. Holm squirmed and finally tapped out.
Holly Holm, who ended Ronda Rousey’s reign, went limp and appeared to be unconscious from the rear naked choke applied by Miesha Tate, the UFC’s new bantamweight champion. Holm was up and moving around moments afterward, and Tate praised her fallen opponent.
“Not many people wouldn’t tap out,” Tate said. “She went out like a champion.”
In the other main event, Nate Diaz stunned Conor McGregor by beating him into submission in the second round.
Holm appeared to be winning her first fight since she dethroned Ronda Rousey with a stunning head-kick knockout in November for one of the sport’s biggest upsets. Although Tate controlled the second round on the ground, Holm picked apart Tate with punches for the other three rounds. Everything changed when Tate finally landed a desperate takedown attempt and got Holm’s back. Holm fought desperately to get out, but the veteran wrestler sunk in a choke that finally left Holm limp and unconscious.
Tate was overwhelming after finally reaching her longtime goal. She lost twice to Rousey earlier in her career, but hasn’t lost a fight since 2013.
“I feel like we had a great game plan,” Tate said. “I had to be patient. She’s very dangerous. She’s capable of catching anyone at any moment. She’s a very calculated fighter.”