When Miesha Tate announced her retirement from mixed martial arts after her fight with Raquel Pennington at UFC 205, mixed martial arts lost one of its finest exponents. Both inside and outside of the cage, Tate has been a standout representative of the sport who has seen and done it all in her nine years as a professional.

While Tate has retired from the Octagon, she has not stepped away from competing altogether. The former Strikeforce and UFC women's bantamweight champion faces UFC veteran Jessica Eye in the co-main event of Submission Underground 2 in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, Dec. 11. Here's a look back at one of the most storied careers in women's MMA.

Taking All Comers

A native of Tacoma, Washington, Tate's journey in combat sports began in high school when she joined the boys wrestling team. In her senior year in 2005, Tate got to square off against her own gender and won the girls wrestling state championship. That early success helped develop an interest in MMA while she attended Central Washington University, and the rest, they say, is history.

In 2006, Tate lost her first bout as an amateur fighter, but she quickly bounced back with two wins before turning professional. On her first night as a pro fighter, Tate advanced to the semifinals of the HOOKnSHOOT Bodog women's tournament but ended up losing to Kaitlin Young after ousting Jan Finney earlier in the night. Tate made her Strikeforce debut in her third fight and beat Elaina Maxwell for the first of five straight wins.

That streak was abruptly ended by a unanimous decision loss to future UFC title contender Sarah Kaufman, although it turned out to be nothing more than a bump in the road for Tate. A landmark victory over veteran Zoila Frausto Gurgel followed two bounce-back wins, which earned Tate a place in a Strikeforce women's tournament that she went on to win.

Tate was then pitted against Strikeforce women's bantamweight champion Marloes Coenan, who Tate submitted in the fourth round to win the belt. As luck would have it, women's MMA was just about to blow up, and Tate was right there in the middle of it.

Rowdy Run-Ins

A bitter rivalry with challenger Ronda Rousey then illuminated the MMA world in the months leading up to Tate's first title defense before the pair eventually met in March 2012. In a fight many pinpoint as the reason women were eventually brought into the UFC, Rousey submitted Tate with an armbar near the end of a hellacious opening round.

In her final Strikeforce fight before moving to the UFC, Tate then locked in an armbar of her own against Julie Kedzie in one of the most exciting and brutal fights ever seen.

Tate dropped her UFC debut in April 2013 via technical knockout to Cat Zingano in a debatable stoppage. However, the loss did not remove Tate from the title picture for long. After the fight, Zingano was due to coach "The Ultimate Fighter" reality TV show opposite of Rousey, who was the UFC champion at the time. But when Zingano tore a knee ligament, Tate took her place on the show and in the championship fight.

At UFC 168 that December, Tate put on a whirlwind performance and became the first fighter to force a second round against Rousey. While Tate battled into the third round, eventually Rousey was once again able to stretch out an armbar and tap Tate to continue her dominating run.

Over the next few months, Tate pondered retirement. But when she got back to her winning ways against Liz Carmouche, Rin Nakai, and Sara McMann, another title run was in Tate's sights.

Reaching the Top

At UFC on FOX: Dillashaw vs. Barao 2 in July 2015, Tate fought Eye in a No. 1 bantamweight-contender bout that featured a couple of addendums. With Rousey still champion at this stage, Eye could put herself as her next challenger with a win, but the UFC was very non-committal on Tate due to her two previous losses to Rousey.

Tate ended up beating Eye in an exciting three-round decision, while Rousey was destroyed in two rounds against Holly Holm a few months later. That made matchmaker Sean Shelby's job easy and the UFC booked Tate and Holm to fight for the title at UFC 196.

In a gripping, old-school bout that pitted a striker against a grappler, Tate had some success early with her wrestling against Holm, a multiple-time world champion boxer. But as the fight entered the fifth round, Holm's range and striking ability had her ahead by two rounds. To have any chance of getting the title, Tate needed the finish -- and she got it. Coming out in the fifth round like a woman possessed, Tate swarmed Holm immediately before taking her down and submitting her with less than two minutes on the clock to win the bantamweight belt in astounding fashion.

Unfortunately for Tate, she wasn't able to defend her belt in first-round knockout loss to Amanda Nunes as the headliner of UFC 200 in July -- a fight that turned out to be Tate's penultimate MMA bout. She entered the Octagon for the final time against Pennington at UFC 205 on Nov. 12, and after losing by unanimous decision, Tate announced her retirement in front of the sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

By Sean Sheehan

How to Watch

SUBMISSION UNDERGROUND 2
ON TV: Now available on Roku and Apple TV 4
STREAMING: Available only on FloGrappling.com. Sign up today for $20 monthly or $150 yearly. Yearly FloPRO access gets you premium content and events from ALL FloSports sites, including FloCombat, FloWrestling, and FloBoxing. SIGN UP HERE