Miesha Tate isn’t expecting Ronda Rousey to defeat Amanda Nunes next month

Miesha Tate says she believes that the just reward for halting Raquel Pennington’s three-fight winning streak in UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday would be a bantamweight title shot at the winner of the Dec. 30 Amanda Nunes-Ronda Rousey bout.

And she says there’s a distinct likelihood who will win that title fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“The last fight — getting caught early — I believe a second fight between Amanda and I would go differently,” Tate said.

What about Rousey, the once-beaten former champion from Venice who will return from a more than three-month absence since her knockout loss to Holly Holm to meet Brazil’s new champion, Nunes?

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Amanda wins,” said Tate (18-6), who has lost twice to Rousey but couldn’t make it through the first round against Nunes at UFC 200 at T-Mobile in July.

“Amanda’s a very tough girl, has the skill set to beat anybody, and we have to wonder where Ronda is mentally after such a long layoff.”

When told that Rousey has been in her Glendale gym training rigorously since August, Tate replied, “That’s great, but we still don’t know. There’s an ‘if’ factor. I can’t speak for Ronda, but it makes you wonder what kind of Ronda Rousey are we going to get?

“That’s the most exciting part of that fight — the ‘X’ factor, because we don’t really know.”

Tate is among the UFC fighters who were unimpressed with Rousey’s run to seclusion after the Holm defeat. Rousey has restricted her thoughts afterward to two appearances on the “Ellen” show and to hosting “Saturday Night Live.”

How will the fight play out?

“Amanda can match Ronda’s pace, and if there’s anything to say about Amanda, it’s that she can crack and she’s not afraid to get right in there and push the pace,” Tate said. “That first round that Ronda typically has, where she overwhelms people, I don’t know that will work on Amanda, who’s fire, fire and she hits like a Mack truck.

“And you’ve got someone coming off a knockout, so you have to wonder about the doubt in there.”

Tate, meanwhile, has her own ghosts to deal with.

She was clearly rattled by Nunes’ punching power and succumbed to a first-round choke, losing the belt she had won four months earlier by defeating Holm with a dramatic fifth-round choke.

“The loss bothers me, but there’s only way to sort of erase it and that’s to fight again,” Tate said. “I want to get back in there and fight against Raquel and show that [losing] will not be a consistent performance from me. I got caught with a big punch and she had a lot to offer.”

Pennington (8-6) last lost to Holm at Staples Center in 2014, and says she’s found a confidence she believes can sustain the momentum.

Tate knows Pennington well, having coached her in “The Ultimate Fighter” reality television series.

“Raquel is underestimated — very durable, hard to put away, good boxing, strong ground skills to finish people. I know I’m getting myself into a difficult fight, but I’m excited because I think it says a lot that the UFC will put me in with someone of her caliber, someone coming off a win streak,” Tate said.

“I feel like [the Nunes fight] was not a normal performance for me. I don’t want to overthink it, but I got caught. I want to prove I have a lot more to offer than that, and I think Raquel is the perfect opponent for that. She’s tenacious and works hard, so beating her will say a lot. I want to have the most impressive performance of my career and get as far away from [the Nunes loss] as possible.”