Erin Blanchfield would love the opportunity to fight the former champion, Miesha Tate.
With two UFC wins under her belt, rising flyweight Erin Blanchfield would be open to a fight with one of her idols. The 23-year-old Blanchfield has been rising up the ranks in the UFC flyweight division since her first win with the organization back in September of last year. The BJJ black belt sat down with Scott Fontana of the NY Post she recalls how she first got into MMA.
“My dad was a big MMA fan. He’s been watching UFC since, like, UFC 1 in the ‘90s, so he always had it on. I didn’t really start watching it until Strikeforce came on and there [were] women fighting in it like Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. … So I can’t really recall, necessarily, the first time because I feel like it’s always been on in our house,” Blanchfield said. “But I remember the first impactful one for me was watching Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey fight for the Strikeforce title. That’s the first fight [for which] I really paid attention and watched the whole fight.”
Year of watching UFC led to training and now she finds herself a peer with her former idols. Tate will be making her flyweight debut later this year, and that division shift has intrigued Blanchfield. Having someone she has looked up to in her division and within reach is too good to pass up if the chance arises.
“I hope I get to fight Miesha Tate. That’d be so cool,” Blanchfield said. “I feel like in men’s MMA, you see more people fighting their idols. They’d be like, “I’ve been watching this person since I was a kid, and I get to fight them.” I feel like in women’s fighting, you haven’t seen that as much because it just hasn’t been around as long. But I feel like that would definitely be my moment. You helped me get into this, but now it’s like, I want to fight. It kind of goes full circle.
Blanchfield already has her next opponent all set. She will face JJ Aldrich tonight at UFC Vegas 56.
Would you be interested in seeing Erin Blanchfield fight Miesha Tate one day?