Miesha Tate and Lauren Murphy out of UFC 276, Tate’s heavily anticipated flyweight debut to be pushed further
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Tate and Murphy were set to open the main card at UFC 276
Miesha Tate had the intrigue of the entire MMA community when she announced that she would be moving to a new weight class at this late stage in her career. The division she was moving down to, flyweight is a tough cut down but Tate assured that she feels better than ever and has her eyes set on capturing the gold strap in the division. However those dreams have to wait as her first opponent in the new division, Lauren Murphy just pulled out due to injuries.
Muphy and Tate were scheduled to be the opener for the UFC 276 main card headlined by Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier. Murphy being a former title challenger was seen as the right step to determine if Tate can hang with the women’s bantamweight elite in her quest for a fight against champion Valentina Shevchenko. However, due to undisclosed injuries, Murphy had to pull out of the fight leaving Tate in limbo a week prior to fight night.
Related: WATCH: Miesha Tate shows off training video ahead of debut flyweight fight at UFC 276
Miesha Tate and Lauren Murphy, scrapped from UFC 276 lineup
Though not officially announced, during the broadcast of UFC Fight Night: Gamrot vs Tsarsukyan the official lineup for UFC 276, didn’t feature the fight leading many to speculate that it had been called off. Shortly the same was confirmed by Ariel Helwani and ESPN. It is unclear if Murphy will be replaced and Tate will go on top to make her Flyweight debut as scheduled against a different opponent.
Tate’s flyweight debut was highly anticipated not only by fans but even the champion herself who said she would hold back her move up to bantamweight if Tate was to put up an exceptional performance. Being a former champion herself at bantamweight, Tate wants to add her name to the list of female double champions and considers this to be her final run at doing so.
This would have been Tate’s third appearance inside the octagon since her 5-year-long hiatus from the sport. In her return “Cupcake” picked up a third-round stoppage win over Marion Reneau. After this fight Tate would come up short in a 5-round decision loss to Ketlen Viera hence making the decision to drop down a weight division.
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)