UFC Vegas 43: Ketlen Vieira earns the biggest win of her UFC career defeating bloodied Miesha Tate (Video)

Ketlen Vieira earns the biggest win of her UFC career over Miesha Tate at UFC Vegas 43.

UFC bantamweight contender Ketlen Vieira put the rest of her division on notice at UFC Vegas 43, as she grinded her way to a win over Miesha Tate.

After getting off to a bit of a hesitant start in the early rounds, Vieira began to pick up the pace late and often had Tate on her back foot. She found a home for the right hook and left jab repeatedly, especially late in the fight.

Tate had her moments on the feet throughout the bout but struggled to find her range as the fight went on. She scored a few of her signature takedowns against Vieira, but wasn’t able to do much with it and put out a lot of offense.

It was Vieira’s first experience fighting over five rounds in the UFC and she passed a big test against a former champion in Tate. Vieira was able to keep her range and pace into the final minutes of the fight and earned a unanimous decision victory.

Ketlen Vieira has entered the bantamweight title picture with her win over Miesha Tate

Tate came into UFC Vegas 43 riding high off her return to the octagon against Marion Reneau earlier this year. She earned a late TKO win over Reneau after five years away from the octagon.

Tate retired following UFC 205 when she lost back-to-back fights against Raquel Pennington and Amanda Nunes. She earned the bantamweight title over Holly Holm at UFC 196.

This was easily the biggest stage of Vieira’s young career, having lost two of her last three bouts coming into the main event. She most recently fell to Yana Kunitskaya by the unanimous decision earlier this year. Despite her recent struggles, Vieira has earned impressive wins over the likes of Cat Zingano and Sara McMann.

With the win over Tate, Vieira has the chance to earn a bantamweight title shot sooner rather than later.

UFC Vegas 43 took place on Saturday, Nov. 20, live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, NV. Follow along with FanSided MMA, who is on-site, for all your news and highlights.