Tara LaRosa vs. Miesha Tate - The MMA War on Twitter

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Top 135 pounder Miesha Tate (left) and top 125 pounder Tara LaRosa (right)

With the rise of social media, a lot of verbal jabbing has spilled from website forums to twitter and Facebook. Notably last year, Shana Olsen and Erin Toughill had a war of words on Facebook over Toughill's refusing to fight Shana Olsen at 145 pounds.

With twitter in particular, the speed at which responses are given has made it possible for a heated discussion to turn public. And that was what happened Tuesday morning.

Strikeforce's #1 contender for the 135 pound belt Miesha Tate was recently interviewed by noted MMA Journalist Bloodstain Lane this past weekend, which lead to a comment about 125 pounder Tara LaRosa, and how Tate would drop to 125 pounds to fight her. LaRosa (@TaraLaRosa) responded to Tate (@MieshaTate) via twitter Tuesday morning, talking about her lackadaisical ways in her early days of training MMA, and the fact that Tate was only in the game for money and fame, and not dedication to the sport. LaRosa offered Tate a private match in a gym in Yakama where the two trained in 2006 to settle things, without a crowd or money involved.  

Tate responded about her dedication and her MMA credentials, stating that she earned her Strikeforce title match with Marloes Coenen, and has earned respect in the cage. LaRosa fired back that most of her wins were with either against natural 125 pounders or people with losing records.

It didn't take long for news sources like MiddleEasy.com to pick up the story, and before you can say "verbal cat fight", The MMA Show was able to get both of them on their podcast (27 minutes in) to verbally discuss the issues between the two. LaRosa again went on the attack, accusing Tate of using the banned substance clenbuterol to gain muscle. Tate denies the claims and states that LaRosa is refusing to fight her.

The two verbally agreed they would like to fight each other, but will this happen? Probably not. Strikeforce has too much at stake with Tate facing Coenen, and Strikeforce is not interested in starting a 125 pound division. Tate stated, however, she is looking for match as her fight with Coenen won't be for at least six months.

Over the past year, Miesha Tate has been a target of verbal feuds. The most notable since the LaRosa attacks have been her verbal war with Zoila Gurgel right before their match at Strikeforce Challengers last year. After the match, the two made up.  More recently, Tonya Evinger had words for Tate in a video interview over at MiddleEasy.com, and both Marloes Coenen and her manager Martjin De Jong have criticized Tate for dropping out of the Strikeforce 135 pound title match a few weeks ago due to a knee injury; which they are claiming wasn't as bad as she was letting on in an article from MMARising.com. 

Tate is taking a lot of heat from other fighters, but is trying to stay the course. As much as the publicity is helping sell women's mma and the Tate vs. Coenen match; when all is said and done, it's all about what happens in the cage. If you can't defend yourself in there, then you don't have reason to criticize. 

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