Miesha Tate opens up about her COVID diagnosis and recovery
Former women's bantamweight champion Miesha Tate takes on Ketlen Vieira in the UFC Vegas 43 main event on Saturday.
The fight was originally slated to take place at UFC Fight Night 195 on Oct. 16, but Tate was forced out of the bout after testing positive for COVID-19. During an appearance on The MMA Hour, Tate opened up about what having COVID-19 was like for her.
"It was like a bad cold. It was like a bad flu. I mean, it wasn't anything scary, but it was no conducive to being in tip-top shape for a fight," Tate said.
"I was out for a solid week, really tired. It definitely moved down into my lungs, so I had lung congestion. I was coughing and hacking up all kinds of phlegm."
Not only did Tate become ill with COVID-19, her children also tested positive for the virus.
"My kids came down with it after. I was probably four days into being sick and positive and sure enough, my daughter tested positive. My son tested positive. It was like a two-week spam where we didn't even have any help because no one can come watch you kids. You can't take them to school. You can't take them to daycare. Nobody can come watch them, so it was about two weeks in total that I would have missed of that camp," Tate said.
Miesha Tate says she’s in the best shape of her life, posts photo to prove it
Once she tested positive and wasn't feeling well, Tate took time to recover. She's not feeling any effects heading into Saturday's main event.
"I could certainly see why it could be a problem if fighters are stupid and push themselves when they're sick," she said. "Once I was testing negative and once I was clear of my quarantine I tried to do my strength and conditioning, what would have been on par with my schedule, and I was like 60 percent. I was struggling to get through it, and I just said, you know what, I need to let my body rest right now. I can not be in a training camp, or I think I'm going to put myself worse off."
"That was a situation where I needed to sit back and let my body heal from COVID and get back to it at 100 percent instead of pushing myself and continuing to break myself down," she said.
Tate returned to the octagon in July for the first time since November 2016 and picked up a TKO win over Marion Reneau. Tate immediately jumped back in the women's 135-pound rankings and a win over Vieira would move the 35-year old closer to her goal of winning back the title.
Watch Miesha Tate finish Marion Reneau UFC return | UFC Vegas 43 Video
