Miesha Tate Beats Marion Reneau via 3rd-Round TKO in Return at UFC on ESPN 26

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Miesha Tate is officially back. The former bantamweight champion was victorious in her comeback fight against Marion Reneau via third-round TKO in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 31 on Saturday.

Tate’s wrestling and ground-and-pound carried the day for the former champion. After winning the first two rounds, she finally drew the referee stoppage in the final frame to claim the win.

The win for Tate brings to an end a retirement that has stuck since 2016. When Tate walked away from the sport, she had dropped back-to-back losses, including a unanimous decision to Raquel Pennington. However, she was just two fights removed from holding on to the strap.

The pair of losses capped a strong run of five straight fights after the conclusion of her rivalry with Ronda Rousey.

Coming back after nearly five years of inactivity is a tall task. But if she’s able to recapture her top form, she could be relevant in the division in short order. Looking at the current landscape of the Amanda Nunes-dominated division, she believes she’s ready to be in that category once again.

“I definitely don’t feel like this sport has passed me by,” Tate told Damon Martin of MMA Fighting. “If you look at a lot of the women that are at the top, like a lot of the women when I was fighting, and a lot of them I’ve already fought against. Of course, it’s evolved over those four years, but I think what’s nice about the fact that I took that long break was that I was really burnt out.”

Tate has also been clear the return to the cage is about her desire to fight again. Not the financial compensation that comes with it. Tate had taken a job as vice president of ONE Championship but had to step down to make her return happen.

With a win over Reneau, she’s had the opportunity to shake off the rest. Now, we’ll get to see if she can remake herself a contender at 34 years old.