Marloes Coenen Apologizes to Miesha Tate, but Tate Says "Damage Has Been Done"

The controversy surrounding the women's bantamweight division in Strikeforce continues to flow in from all directions following Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate's fiery exchange earlier this week on The MMA Hour. 

Most recently it was former champion Marloes Coenen who spoke up about the woman who beat her, claiming that Tate should not be the one speaking out against the sexualization of women's MMA. Coenen suggested that the infamous "thong photo" of Tate essentially makes her comments on the subject null and void. 

Tate fired back, stating that the photo in question is not even her in the first place. 

After hearing Tate's rebuttal, Coenen has now taken a step back from the stance she took, instead opting to apologize for pointing out the picture which she believed to be of Tate.

Coenen is not the only one who believed that the photo is of Tate. In fact, a poll on Bleacher Report suggested that almost exactly half of all fans believe that the photo is of Tate even after she denied it. 

The current women's 135-pound champion has been doing her best to help change the perception of women's mixed martial arts as being only about the looks, but this type of photography only adds to the sexism surrounding the sport. 

Tate has taken the torch for women's MMA and run with it in recent months since becoming the champion in July, but as she said on Twitter, the damage may have already been done on this one. It's particularly unfortunate if the photo truly is not of her. 

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