Tacoma MMA fighter Miesha Tate bares all for ESPN body issue

The body is their instrument – which means the athletes that bare it all for ESPN magazine’s annual body issue are some of the fittest we may ever lay eyes on.

This year, 26-year-old Tacoma native and bantamweight Mixed Martial Arts fighter Miesha “Cupcake” Tate made the cut.

Tate now calls Yakima home, but before heading to college at Central Washington University, she was the only girl on her high school wrestling team in Tacoma.

The skills she learned then obviously did her well. Her pro MMA career kicked off in 2007 and since then, she won the 135lb Strikeforce Women’s World Title in 2011.

She told ESPN she wanted to pose for the body issue to tear down the stereotype that women in MMA were butch or “wannabe men,” and that cage-fighting women were strong and beautiful.

You can see photos of Tate and the other athletes baring it all at ESPN.com.