Miesha Tate talks about her “nerve-racking” experience posing nude on a beach.

Miesha Tate

See, call me weird but I don’t think posing somewhat nude, like Rousey on a closed beach is really all that nerve-racking when you have a great body and are already in the public eye. I mean, what’s the difference between that, and fighting in a skimpy outfit, or constantly posing in skimpy outfits like Miesha has before. Meh, what do I know, I never have and never will pose naked for anything, I am not Frank Trigg. No sir.

Maybe this experience helped Miesha deal with the bright lights and intense pressure she will be facing at UFC 168 when she takes on Ronda Rousey in her first Pay-per-view UFC match. Well, probably not. This is Miesha recalling her experience, though.

The bantamweight title contender can at least hang her hat on the fact that she’s in a huge magazine, and lots of people will be staring at her. Then she will be on TV front and center for weeks as a coach of TUF, THEN headlining a UFC PPV. It’s gotta be good to be Miesha right now.

“One of the of the biggest common misperceptions about women’s mixed martial arts is that we’re not feminine,” she says. “So for me it’s important to show that women in this sport are comfortable about their bodies, that we’re pretty and carry ourselves as women — and we can also turn it up a notch in the cage.”

“It was nerve-racking because even though it was a private beach, there’s still big houses all around and we had a couple of people trying to walk by the shoot,” says Tate. “They kept turning around and walking in the background and our crew kept having to hold up blinders so they wouldn’t see me.”