The UFC has a fight night on May 3rd that appears to be heading for Des Moines, Iowa. However, the location hasn’t been officially announced yet. That said, we are starting to learn about some of the fights that will be taking place on the card and today, we learned about a women’s bantamweight fight that’ll feature a former world champion.
Former UFC champ Miesha Tate (20-8) is back as she takes on 10th ranked Yana Santos (15-8). Tate announced the fight on her Instagram earlier today. Starting with Santos, she’ll be looking to pick up her second straight win. A few years back, Yana Santos was making her way up the bantamweight division.
She had won two fights in a row including a decision win over Ketlen Vieira. That win made her 4-1 in five fights. However, a three-fight losing streak after that put her back against the wall. Santos picked up a nice win over Chelsea Chandler back in August and now she’ll look to defeat the former champion Miesha Tate.
UFC Des Moines
After climbing to the top of the sport and becoming bantamweight champion in 2016, Tate lost her title to Amanda Nunes. In her return fight later that year, she lost to Raquel Pennington and decided to hang up her gloves. Then, she decided to return nearly five years after she retired.
Tate returned in 2021 for a final run and stopped Marion Reneau in her return bout. In her second fight back, she lost a decision to Ketlen Vieira in a fight where many thought Tate would earn a title shot with a win. She decided to drop to flyweight and faced Lauren Murphy. Unfortunately, Tate lost that one as well and many wondered if the former UFC champ would retire.
After a year and a half off, Tate returned in December 2023 and submitted Julia Avila. We haven’t seen Tate since so it’ll be interesting to see how the former champion looks upon her return.