Miesha Tate’s got something of a hot Lita Ford rocker chick look going. She’s from Olympia, Washington–yet another MMA pro from the Pacific Northwest. She’s 1-1 in her pro career with the loss coming to tough Caitlin Young. Tate wrestled on the boys wrestling team in high school. Bas wonders if she also shared a locker room with the team. Somehow that’s doubtful. Maxwell grew up in Muscle Shoals, AL. She went the distance with Gina Carano in 2006 which is a pretty impressive accomplishment. Maxwell is 2-2 in her pro career. Her nickname is ‘Beef’, which she got in a former gig working at Outback Steakhouse. Her co-workers were impressed with her ability to put away steaks and gave her the moniker. Rice makes the somewhat profound observation that ‘Beef’ is a better nickname than ‘Bloomin’ Onion’. Maxwell is a San Jose local so she gets the better reaction from the crowd…

ROUND ONE:

Tate opens the match with a kick and quickly gets the takedown. On paper Maxwell has the superior technical background but Tate looks to be significantly more powerful. She’s in Maxwell’s guard trying to pass but is unable to do so. Maxwell defending nicely from the bottom for a while but Tate finally passes guard and gets full mount. She lands a few punches but Maxwell is defending well, blocking punches with her arms and using her legs against the cage to try and extricate herself. Out of nowhere Tate cinches in the arm bar a la our favorite female fighter Shayna Baszler. Maxwell tries to roll out to relieve the pressure as the round draws to a close. Just an impressive display of guts as she essentially toughs out a fully extended armbar for over :30. Rutten notes that ‘its only pain, there’s no permanent damage’ which is today’s evidence that fighters are just wired differently. Tate gets the round 10-9.

ROUND TWO:

Tate gets the takedown again. She looks so much more powerful than her opponent and took her down with ease. Picture freezes up now for a moment and quickly return–it was HDNet’s fault here for once and not Comcast. As we return Tate is back in full mount, she gets in a full punches but Maxwell blocking well for now. She’s landing punches with more effectiveness now and out of nowhere Maxwell uses her leg strength to extricate herself with head scissors. Tate spins out and is trying for a kimura or an armbar as the round ends. Another round for Tate, but kudos to Maxwell for her unique leg scissor escape/choke. 10-9 Tate, 20-18 she leads. Showing the replay of the head scissors now and that would have been a cool submission–are you watching Shinya Aoki?

ROUND THREE:

Strikeforce is using CompuStrike stats for this fight and they’re showing a clearly dominant bout for Tate. Tate starts the third just bulling Maxwell against the fence. Looks like Tate is thinking that she’s got the decision in the bag and is going to coast the rest of the way. The ref is going to move them away from the cage and Tate tries for a singleleg. She doesn’t get the takedown and Maxwell gets Tate’s back in her first significant offensive move of the night. Tate defending nicely, but she spins out of the choke position into an armbar attempt. Round ends with Tate covering up. Hard to see anything other than a Tate victory, but Maxwell gets round 3. We’ll call it 10-9 Maxwell for round three, but Tate gets the victory on our card 29-28.

MIESHA TATE WINS BY UNANIMOUS DECISION

Tate looked really good–very powerful and good wrestling skills. Expect to see more of her in the future.