Miesha Tate vs. Julia Avila Prediction for UFC on ESPN 52 (December 2)

Our Miesha Tate vs. Julia Avila prediction is that this is going to be one of the most interesting preliminaries in UFC on ESPN 52 at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, December 2, 2023.

Bookmakers seem to agree with us as evident from their Miesha Tate vs. Julia Avila odds. All MMA betting sites see Avila as the favorite in this fight, with odds in the ballpark of -160. Meanwhile, the former UFC champ Tate is a +130 underdog in most online sportsbooks.

Keep reading our Tate vs. Avila prediction piece to see whether bookies are right or wrong to offer such UFC on ESPN 52 odds.

Miesha Tate Coming Back to the Octagon After a 16-Month Hiatus

Miesha Tate (19-9) is a former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion who won her title by submitting Holly Holm in March 2016. Just four months later, she lost the title to Amanda Nunes by submission, which is the point from which her career started to follow a downward path.

The same year she suffered another loss (to Raquel Pennington), but then went on a break from MMA which lasted for four and a half years. During that period, she got married (to Johnny Nuñez) and had two children.

She made her comeback in 2021 with a win over Marion Reneau, but then went on to win the following two fights – to Ketlen Vieira and Lauren Murphy – each time by decision.

The last time she fought was in July 2022. She wanted to fight earlier in 2023, but her plans didn’t come to fruition due to injury problems. Saturday, December 2 is when she’s coming back to the Octagon to fight Julia Avila in her first fight after two and a half years.

Reasons Why Julia Avila’s Odds are -160

Julia Avila’s story is very similar to the one of Tate. She’s 9-2 overall but hasn’t fought since the summer of 2021. During her break from MMA, she gave birth to a daughter and had problems with some injuries.

The last time she fought, tho, she defeated Julija Stoliarenko by submission. She showed her grappling prowess in that fight, but there’s a big question mark over whether she’s gonna be able to do the same to Tate, who’s one of the best female grapplers in the UFC.

In fact, Avila has never fought against such a tough opponent as Tate. So far, she’s only fought four times in the UFC (Tata has fought 12 fights in Dana White’s MMA promotion). Before that, she fought two fights in Invicta FC, and a couple of fights in local promotions like HD MMA, XKO, and TWC.