Germaine de Randamie may no longer be the UFC women’s featherweight champion, however her feud with the UFC is still an extremely controversial one. After winning the belt earlier this year, it appeared as though the stars had aligned for Germaine de Randamie to defend her title against Cris Cyborg.

De Randamie refused to fight Cyborg, explaining that the former Invicta FC champ is a “proven cheater” in regards to her drug testing history. While Cyborg’s team, and many others, held out hope for a GDR-Cyborg fight, de-Randamie was ultimately stripped of the title by the UFC, and Cris Cyborg was booked to fight Megan Anderson.

Unfortunately, Anderson recently withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons. Fortunately, the UFC was able to book Invicta FC bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger as a fill-in opponent for Cyborg in her fight for the vacant women’s featherweight title.

Now, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate is weighing-in on the situation, explaining on The MMA Hour that she understands both sides of the argument:

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“I mean, what do you really have to lose when you fight someone like Cyborg, of her stature?” Tate asked. “If you beat Cyborg, you’re on another level of respect. And if you lose, it’s like, well so has everybody. So, my opinion of it is, as a fighter, just from a fighter standpoint I think it would be an awesome thing to be able to fight Cyborg.”

“I do respect and understand what Germaine is saying,” Tate said. “And I don’t think she’s scared of Cyborg. She’s a fighter. She’s been kickboxing forever. She’s one of the baddest women on the planet.

“[De Randamie’s] point she’s trying to make is, she doesn’t believe it’s fair,” Tate later added, “and that, I cannot disagree. I don’t disagree with what she’s saying.”

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/4/2017.