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"My Bloody Road"
by Miesha Tate
South China Morning Post
Dirty knees
I was born in 1986, in Tacoma, Washington. My mum was a single mother and it was difficult for her financially for the first years of my life. My father who raised me came into my life when I was about three. I was seven when my brother was born and my sister arrived when I was 15.
We lived in a house handed down from my grandmother. It had five acres of land and apple trees, but it was rundown and my parents struggled to maintain it. I was a very outdoorsy girl; I always had dirty knees and elbows, and twigs in my hair because I’d just climbed a tree.
Taking on the boys
The only winter sport my high school offered girls was basketball. I was no good at it. When I was 15, my best friend and I signed up for the wrestling team; we were the only females. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. The boys didn’t want girls on the team, so they made it as hard as they could to get us to quit. I was covered in bruises and mat burns, and my confidence took a hit.
Being pushed down and beaten is not something women are raised to be conditioned in. I was out of my element, but I realised I was stronger than I thought. A fire had been lit in me and I was determined to prove I could be good at this. Six weeks into the first season was a turning point – the boys started to realise I wasn’t going to quit, that I was ready to work as hard as everyone else. I stuck at it and eventually they welcomed me onto the team. In 2004, at the end of my senior year, I was awarded the Coach’s Award for outstanding athlete.
Try outs
I went to Central Washington University. A female friend introduced me to the mixed martial arts (MMA) programme. I was reluctant, but I’m so glad she persuaded me. I quickly took to jiu-jitsu, with its submission holds, chokes and leveraging, and was invited to my first live MMA event. I was totally inspired – the athletes were so raw, so pure – it was an amazing display of heart, determination and willpower.
At the end of that show, they asked if any women in the audience were interested in joining. With no management, no training, I signed up and, three weeks later, had my first fight. Complacency is the death of us. I enjoy pushing myself. What’s the worst that can happen? I fail. And that’s OK because failure has taught me more than any success.
MMA before men
I began seeing a student called Bryan Caraway; he’d started MMA at the college. We dated for a while, but when I told him I wanted to fight, he said, “I don’t think we can maintain a relationship because this is my sanctuary; this is the time I train.” So we separated because I wanted to pursue fighting. I would never choose a man over my sport.
I met another guy who was also training in martial arts. He committed suicide when I was in the middle of my finals. It was my first experience of death and it hit me hard. I went home. I wanted to step away from that whole scene; I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go back into fighting or competition. And that’s when Bryan came back into the picture and persuaded me to continue. Bryan and I ended up dating for seven years and we split up three years ago.
A bloody lesson
I had six fights as an amateur over a year and a half and then had my first professional fight, in 2006, on an Indian reservation. It was almost underground; they didn’t really invest in athletes’ safety. It was tough, but I learned a lot. I wasn’t trained well enough.
I took the girl down and won the first round. In the second round, she put me in a Muay Thai clinch and began kneeing me in the face. I didn’t know how to get out of it. She broke my nose. We went down and she slipped onto my back and I was on my knees and elbows, watching a steady stream of blood come out of my nose.
I had this moment of clarity – I had to fight this person, to compete at my best. I switched a gear and bucked her down in front of me and stood up and rained down punches. It was probably pretty graphic for the audience. My coaches wouldn’t let me go back out for the third round; they were concerned because my nose was badly broken. There was no insurance, no doctors there. That fight motivated me to train harder and really understand the gravity of the sport.
Striking it poor
In 2008, I moved from Washington to California and went to Strikeforce, an MMA organisation, fighting a girl in her hometown. I won that fight and was signed by Strikeforce, which at the time was the best promoter of female fighting. Making a living was tough. You were scheduled to fight three times a year and – even if I won all those fights – I would make about US$18,000 for the year.
It wasn’t much and it certainly wasn’t sustainable. I knew that if I wanted to give it my all to become a world champion, I had to make some big sacrifices – an apartment and a car – so I could be at the gym 24/7. I invested in an RV, which I parked at the gym, and I lived there. All the money I made went to food and basic necessities. There were times when I would go in the gym at 1 am or 2 am and just train.
UFC world champ
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My career highlight was winning the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) in 2016. I fought Holly Holm. As we were going into the fifth round, she was a bit ahead. I went for it with a crazy, relentless takedown and got her down and climbed on her back. As she was getting back to her feet, I got her back down on the mat and slipped my arm under her neck and got her in a choke. She tried to flip me over and we did a crazy dive roll. I still had her in the choke and was squeezing. She passed out, so the ref had to stop it.
It was 10 years to the month since I had begun my fighting career. I lost the next two fights; I was exhausted. I had so many things going on in my life. Bryan and I were separating and there were other emotional distractions. I decided it was a good time to step away from it and announced my retirement, and haven’t looked back.
Building heroes
I moved on to become a vice-president of ONE Championship in Singapore. I fight hard for the athletes and make sure they are well taken care of. As a former fighter, I notice things we can do better. ONE Championship is about the core values of martial arts – we don’t sell fights, we are really trying to build heroes. That’s totally different from other martial arts promoters, which are about the dollars they can make, the trash talking, highlighting the violence. Our martial arts values come from Asia – integrity, courage, honour, respect and humility – those are things we want our athletes to celebrate.
I met my partner, Johnny Nunez, in Las Vegas. We were training at the same gym, but I’m so focused in the gym I didn’t notice him. We ran into each other outside and started talking and hanging out. A friendship turned into a relationship and now we have a beautiful 13-month-old daughter, Amaia. She’s the light of our life and the motivating factor for so many of the things we do.
The message I want to pass on to her is to be a strong, empowered woman and not to give up on your goals and dreams. I want to be a role model for my daughter, to show her that you should never lose sight of yourself. You still have to make time to be you.
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post.../former-ufc-world-champion-miesha-tate-bloody
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