Damon Martin M&A Fighting.com and one of the biggest announcements over the past few days has been the return of former UFC women's bandwits champion Misha Tate and I am so happy to catch up with Misha today. Misha, thank you as always for taking the time I know we've been doing these interviews for many years.

But man, I gotta be honest, I'm super excited about this one because you're fighting again.

Yeah, it's a little different pace than the last one I think, but yeah, I'm so excited to be back. I mean, I don't know if people can tell through my, I don't know, just my elation, like I'm just happy. I'm in such a good place.

And it's just different than it than it ever has been before in the sport. So I'm excited to see how that actually translates come July 17th.

Absolutely. Give me an idea because when you talked after you retired, we talked after you joined one championship, you know, we talked after you became a mom, you know, you've been busy.

You've had a lot of stuff going on in your life that had nothing to do with you actually stepping back in the cage.

But when did you first start feeling that itchy game? Like when did you first start feeling like, hmm, maybe maybe I want to fight again. Like when did that happen?

Yeah, honestly, it was probably right after I had my son in June. I kind of was, I was kind of set back like everybody, you know, with the pandemic.

There was just so much going on that was kind of like it just made you reevaluate, right? What is important in life? Like family is very important. Friends are important. A good support system is important and time time is valuable. And I just started thinking that I was like, you know what?

I was like, yeah, I want to do this again. I was watching, I had been watching fights for such a long time. And I was, you know, I had my family. I knew that was like, he's the last baby I wanted to want more kids. And other than maybe adopting, but I don't want to burst anymore children.

And I just knew that I was like, you know what? I'm 34. I feel really good. And I want to get back to that, that, that place of like the competitive nature, you know, it just really started to speak to me. I was like, I, I really want to do this again. I definitely don't feel like this sport has passed me by, you know, we look at, look at a lot of the women who are at the top or still like a lot of the women who went, you know, when I was fighting.

You know, a lot of them I've already fought against, but of course, it's evolved over the four years, but I think what's nice about the fact that I took that long break was, I was really burnt out. And I was just kind of in a dark place to be honest, the latter part of my career, finally just a lot of the things in my first life just really caught up to me. And I just, there's only so much somebody can take, you know, and so I just, I needed to step away so that I could regroup, I guess.

Don't get me wrong. When I retired, I really meant like that, that was it. But in hindsight, now that I'm back where I'm like, I want to be competitive again, like I just see how important that was because I think I would have just continued to go on a losing streak.

Had I pushed myself to come back, you know, I would have just like continued to not be there mentally physically. And so now I'm in a place where everything is right in my life.

Like probably for the first time in my life, things are all put together well. And I have a great support system. And I don't know, I feel like this is me should 2.0.

Yeah, absolutely. Can we go back? I mean, I remember, you know, I was at your fight with Raquel Pennington when that night happened. And I remember, you know, when you were tired at the time, I was like, whoa, like did not see this coming. You're still so young. And obviously it accomplished a lot, but it was just like kind of a shocking moment.

But you're very honest, you know, you about, you know, why you're walking away and you mentioned, I think you said on the, on the scrum you did last week, you know, you, you dealt with some depression. Can you kind of walk me through like that period of your life.

And then coming out on the other side of that, because I think that's so important. We talked about mental health is like coming out on the other side of something like that because you did you obviously did.

Yes, I mean, mental health, it's, it's no joke to, to be in a place of, of depression, depression is something that can consume, can consume every piece of you. And sometimes you just feel like there's, you know, that there's no, no, no way out of it.

I mean, I think it's, it's important or at least it was for me at that point to be brutally honest with myself and really address and take some time to soul search, you know, after that by, you know, I went on a road trip, I just took time for myself to answer questions, you know, why was I selling that way, where, where was my head, how could I make it better.

And that's really what I needed time to do. I needed time to self reflect. I needed time to regroup. I needed time to make myself whole again and happy in life.

And I was kind of a scary moment because I don't really know what else I was beside the fighter. And that's also scary. I see people hold on sometimes I think too long to their careers because it's all we know, like it's all that's it, like there's not, there's not, you know, sometimes you feel like there's nothing else, like, who am I if I'm not me should take the fighter.

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