Ex-UFC champion Miesha Tate stops Marion Reneau in MMA return

Miesha Tate was successful in her return to MMA competition.

The former UFC and Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion stopped veteran Marion Reneau in her comeback fight at Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 26. Tate (19-7 MMA, 6-4 UFC) defeated Reneau (9-8-1 MMA, 5-7-1 UFC) via TKO at the 1:53 mark of round three.

The women’s bantamweight bout was the UFC on ESPN 26 co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It aired on ESPN and streamed on ESPN+.

It was a dominant showing by Tate.

In the opening round, Tate was happy to keep the fight on the feet. Both fighters connected and had their moments, but Tate was doing most of the pressuring and damage. Halfway through the round, Tate closed the distance and pinned Reneau against the cage. Little action went down before the fight resumed again in the striking department. With a minute left, Tate got a takedown and moved to half-guard to end the round.

The second, Reneau started well, keeping her distance and tagging Tate from afar. However, halfway through the round, Tate got a takedown. The former UFC titleholder kept top control while landing ground-and-pound on Reneau. “The Belizean Bruiser” did a good job at avoiding major damage while being on the bottom, but was unable to get back on her feet.

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The final round was all Tate. She did damage on the feet and once again was able to get the fight to the ground. From there, she poured the ground-and-pound, forcing the referee to call the fight and award the TKO win to Tate.

Tate had retired from the sport in 2016 after suffering a decision loss to Raquel Pennington at UFC 205. Tate walked away from the sport on a two-fight losing streak, which marked the end of her run as UFC women’s bantamweight champion. “Cupcake” lost the belt to current champion Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 in July 2016.

The 34-year-old didn’t call anyone out following her win over Reneau, but did make it clear she plans to continue fighting.

For Reneau, the loss marked her last MMA fight. The 44-year-old fighter had previously announced she was going to retire following UFC on ESPN 26. Reneau walks away from the sport with notable wins over Sara McMann and Jessica Andrade.

Up-to-the-minute UFC on ESPN 26 results include:

  • Miesha Tate def. Marion Reneau via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 1:53

  • Mateusz Gamrot def. Jeremy Stephens via submission (kimura) – Round 1, 1:05

  • Rodolfo Vieira def. Dustin Stoltzfus via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 1:54

  • Billy Quarantillo def. Gabriel Benitez via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 3:40

  • Daniel Rodriguez def. Preston Parsons via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 3:47

  • Amanda Lemos def. Montserrat Conejo via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 0:35

  • Sergey Morozov def. Khalid Taha via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

  • Malcolm Gordon def. Francisco Figueiredo via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

  • Rodrigo Nascimento def. Alan Baudot via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 1:29

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