Miesha Tate to defend her title against Amanda Nunes at UFC 200

“I think if she wants it, she should get it. She was the best for a long time. She has a tall order. I’m at the top of my game. I’m on a five-fight win streak and I have an amazing camp behind me. I’m ready to defend this thing.”

New women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate will defend her Ultimate Fighting Championship belt for the first time at UFC 200, and it won’t be against former champions Holly Holm or Ronda Rousey.

The UFC announced Wednesday that Tate will fight top-five contender Amanda Nunes on July 9 at T-Mobile Arena, which opened Wednesday in Las Vegas with a Killers concert.

Tate (18-5) won the belt at UFC 196 on March 5 with a fifth-round submission of Holm less than four months after Holm’s stunning knockout victory over Rousey.

“She’s really tough. She’s on a four-fight win streak,” Tate said of Nunes. “She’s really dangerous. I asked to fight the next best person in line and that’s what they told me. I’m very, very excited for my first title defense. Ronda is out until November or December and Holly -- it was her first defense and she wasn’t successful. I finished her.”

On the same UFC 196 card as Tate-Holm, Nunes (12-4) defeated Valentina Shevchenko by decision.

It wasn’t the dominant showing Nunes said she was seeking before the fight, but she felt good enough afterward to call out Tate at the post-fight news conference. Nunes, a 27-year-old Brazilian, is 5-1 in the UFC. Her lone defeat is to former title challenger Cat Zingano.

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Keeping Holm and Rousey out of UFC 200 gives the organization flexibility to pursue a Rousey-Holm rematch when Rousey is ready to fight again in the fall.

“I think if she wants it, she should get it,” Tate said of Rousey returning to the octagon in a title match. “She was the best for a long time. She has a tall order. I’m at the top of my game. I’m on a five-fight win streak and I have an amazing camp behind me. I’m ready to defend this thing.”

Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter: @latimespugmire