Countdown to UFC 196: Holly Holm vs Miesha Tate
What happens when Miesha Tate"s trainer is also her boyfriend
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Sent!Posted!UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm has a pleasant press conference with opponent Meisha Tate ahead of UFC 196. USA TODAY Sports
Miesha Tate and Bryan Caraway don"t always find it easy to separate being fighter-trainer and boyfriend-girlfriend.(Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS When Miesha Tate first revealed she wanted to be a mixed martial arts fighter about a decade before her championship fight Saturday against Holly Holm Bryan Caraway, then a budding MMA fighter and trainer, was strongly opposed.
He was interested in her as a potential girlfriend, and the thought of Tate fighting soured their budding romance.
I was like, Whoa, this is my deal, Caraway told USA TODAY Sports. You dont want to get your face punched. Youre a cute little girl.
Hows this for cute: Tate and Caraway eventually hooked up, in and out of the gym, and forged a relationship that has help develop Tate as perennial top contender and given her a third shot at a UFC championship. But for boyfriend/trainer and girlfriend/fighter, it has not been easy.
In fact, in 2013 Tate brought in a second trainer, Robert Follis.
He serves as a great buffer between Bryan and I when emotions get tense, Tate told USA TODAY Sports.
Strong emotions always have been at the root of the relationship between Tate and Caraway. They struck up a romance in 2005 at Central Washington University soon after Tate joined the MMA club Caraway helped start. But Caraway, who was helping train Tate, decided the relationship must be strictly business after Tate declared her intentions to fight competitively.
Initially, Caraway said, he was hoping she would quit.
We were a little bit more rough on her, he said. But I remember one day looking over and she was working just as hard if not harder than everyone on the team. Thats when I realized she was legit.
Tate started dating another MMA fighter, and a few months later, her new boyfriend committed suicide.
Tate, devastated, stopped training.
I really crawled into a shell, she said, adding that she did not resume training until she got a call from Caraway. It was really Bryan who pushed me to get back into mixed martial arts.
When she returned, their relationship changed. Caraway soon became Tates boyfriend and trainer, and so began their ascent in MMA. She made professional debut in 2007 and compiled a 12-2 record before getting a shot against Ronda Rousey in 2012.
After a first-round loss, Tate got a rematch in 2013. She became the first fighter to survive more than one round with Rousey in a competitive, three-round loss. Tate has since won four consecutive fights.
But perhaps her biggest victory was convincing Caraway that a cute little girl could handle herself in the octagon.
Obviously she won that battle, said Caraway, who also competes as a fighter and is 20-7 in MMA. It taught me a lot, not to put limitations on somebody just because youre uncomfortable with it.
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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ufc/2016/03/04/meisha-tate-holly-holm-boyfriend-trainer-bryan-caraway/81332214/
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