Report – Miesha Tate agrees to flyweight move, UFC 273 clash with Lauren Murphy

Former undisputed UFC bantamweight champion, Miesha Tate has reportedly verbally agreed to make a much-speculated drop to the flyweight limit – in the form of a targeted pairing with most-recent title chaser, Lauren Murphy at UFC 273 on April 9. 

Washington native, Tate, who snapped her November 2016 retirement back in July, most recently headlined UFC Vegas 43 back in November, suffering an eventual one-sided unanimous decision loss to bantamweight contender, Ketlen Vieira. 

For Murphy, the Alaska native co-headlined UFC 266 back in September against flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko, succumbing to a fourth round high-kick and follow up ground strikes. Damon Martin of MMA Fighting was first to report the targeted bout between Tate and Murphy. 

Making a triumphant Octagon return back in the summer, Tate stopped the retiring, Marion Reneau with eventual third round ground strikes – securing her first professional victory since March 2016.

In that early 2016 triumph, Tate struck undisputed bantamweight gold at the second time of trying – dispatching then-champion, Holly Holm with a late, rallying fifth round rear-naked choke. 

Announcing her retirement following a title loss to former two-weight queen, Amanda Nunes, and follow-up defeat to Raquel Pennington, Tate became the Vice President of Singapore-based organization, ONE Championship. Upon her expected move to flyweight, Tate is currently sat at #8 in the bantamweight ranks. 

36-year-old Alaska native, Murphy entered the UFC off the back of an eight-fight perfect run, which included an Invicta FC bantamweight championship triumph in December 2013.

Competing 12 times under the Dana White-led banner since, Murphy embarked on an impressive five-fight winning run before her knockout loss to Shevchenko – taking home wins over the likes of Joanne Calderwood, Roxanne Modafferi, and Andrea Lee en route to her UFC 266 title shot.

Ross Markey

Senior writer for FightBook MMA. An aspiring mixed martial arts reporter based in Ireland. Producer of news articles, interviews, opinion features, and exclusive features such as, ‘The Fallout’, ‘The Breakdown, and, ‘This Week In MMA’.