• TUF 17 Finale

Miesha Tate 'p***ed' at Zingano stoppage

Miesha Tate was stopped in the third round by Cat Zingano at the TUF 17 Finale © Getty Images

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Miesha Tate did not hold back in her assessment of referee Kim Winslow's stoppage of her bout with Cat Zingano on Saturday, insisting: "I was still in the fight".

Tate met Zingano for the dual prize of earning a shot at women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and a lucrative coaching spot on the next series of The Ultimate Fighter.

In a superb display of mixed martial arts, Tate appeared to win the first two rounds with superior striking and arguably equal grappling, but the fight turned in the third. Zingano smashed her rival with knees, dropping her with an elbow, at which point Winslow stopped the bout despite Tate's continued defence.

"I'm pissed to say the least," Tate said. "I'm definitely not happy. I mean, I still feel like I was in the fight. I don't for one second feel like it should have been stopped.

"I'm a fighter and I wanted to keep fighting.

"Kim came in and told me before we left the locker room that, 'If I warn you to move, all I need to know is that you want to stay in the fight,'. I felt that I did that. I got from the bottom, up. I got kneed a few times on the way. I tried to shoot another shot, and the fight was stopped.

"I sat up. I shot a double. I got to my feet. I took some damage because of that, because I was trying to listen to the referee, and she f***ing stopped the fight. [Winslow] told me to, 'Show me something.' I don't know what you want?"

Dana White refused to criticise the referee though, saying: "You know me. If I didn't think the refs did a good job, I'd tell you. They did a good job tonight."

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