Former UFC champion Miesha Tate steps back inside the Octagon in June, as she faces Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC Fight Night.
Miesha Tate back in action this June
Former UFC champion and MMA pioneer Miesha Tate makes her return to the Octagon at UFC Fight Night from Las Vegas on June 3.
Tate will battle Mayra Bueno Silva in the co-main event inside the UFC Apex live on ESPN. In the headline bout, flyweights Kai Kara-France and Amir Albazi square off.
For Tate, she will be coming back to 135 pounds as the 36-year-old chases her first win since 2021. The former Strikeforce champion is coming off back-to-back decision defeats to Lauren Murphy and Ketlen Vieira.
Last July, Tate fought Murphy at flyweight, but will be back to bantamweight for this contest, which is where she won the UFC title from Holly Holm at in 2016.
Silva is unbeaten in her last three and 10-2-1 overall. She scored a “Performance of the Night” bonus in a February submission win vs. Lina Lansberg. Prior to that, she also submitted Stephanie Egger and topped Wu Yanan.
Following a technical submission via ninja choke in 2018 on Dana White’s Contender Series, Silva signed with the UFC and has gone 5-2-1 since.
Kai Kara-France vs. Amir Albazi headlines
While the return of Tate is exciting to see, the main event should pack quite the punch in a hurry. Both Kara-France and Albazi want nothing more than to climb the ladder and compete for UFC flyweight title.
Kara-France had his shot at interim gold when he faced Brandon Moreno last July, but had his three-fight win streak snapped. Wins over Askar Askarov, former champion Cody Garbrandt and Rogerio Bontorin showed why he is a serious threat.
Albazi has reeled off five consecutive wins and is 16-1 overall, with his lone loss coming in 2019 in Brave FC. He has two victories in Bellator and four with the UFC since joining the promotion.
Early in his career, Albazi captured gold competing for Ultimate Challenge MMA and FightStar Championship.
Plenty of veteran fighters also on docket
The rest of the card will see some big names in action including Alex Caceres, Jim Miller, former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski and Tim Elliott.
Caceres takes on Daniel Pineda, Miller battles Ludovit Klein, Arlovski squares off with Don’Tale Mayes and Elliott gets Victor Altamirano.
