Rumors have been swirling for some time now that Miesha Tate would be defending her women's bantamweight championship against Ronda Rousey on March 3 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

And now it's confirmed.

Strikeforce announced the bout last night (Sat., Jan. 7, 2012) during the "Rockhold vs. Jardine" telecast on Showtime, noting that Tate vs. Rousey would be the main event of the evening.

That wasn't the plan originally, as the idea was to headline the annual show that coincides with The Arnold Sports Festival with the finale of the heavyweight grand prix. Unfortunately, Daniel Cormier, one half of that final, still hasn't healed up enough from his recent hand injury to lock his bout against Josh Barnett in for that date.

Something tells me the lethal ladies will do just find in their place.

These two have been going at it for some time now, both on Twitter and in interviews, most notably when they made a joint appearance on The MMA Hour where Ariel Helwani gave them the opportunity to air their grievances against one another.

Rousey's main point was simple: she's a beautiful women who can tear opponents to shreds and she can give a damn good interview afterwards. That's enough to market a great fight and help women's MMA along in the process:

"Sarah Kaufman kind of gives boring interviews, she's not a supermodel and the way she fights, she doesn't finish matches in extraordinary fashion. It's just kind of being realistic. I'm sorry that I have to say things bluntly and offend some people. I just want there to be a highly marketable, exciting women's title fight, and I want to be part of that because I feel like I could do a really good job, and you could, too. I think the two of us could do a better job of that than you and Sarah Kaufman. I really feel 100-percent that a fight between her and me needs to happen. It'll be great for women's MMA. It'll be the first highly anticipated fight in women's MMA for a long time ... We need to capitalize on the opportunity while we still have it. I don't want to risk her losing the title and us not being able to fight each other for the title."

Tate, meanwhile, still doesn't believe Rousey should be able to move down to a weight class she's never fought in with just three wins under her belt as a professional and earn a title shot. "Takedown" wanted a rematch against Sarah Kaufman, not a showdown against the "Rowdy" one.

"What happens when she gets a failed arm bar and someone ends up on top pounding her face in? Is she going to tap out or quit? We don't know. We haven't seen that yet. I think it's kind of silly to put her in with me because that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take it to her. A lot of people are underestimating me. That's fine. That always seems to be the case. Make no mistake; if Ronda is my next fight, I'm going to come in with a vengeance you've never seen before, because to be quite honest, it's probably going to piss me off."

Sounds juicy.

Considering how wonderfully this fight has been marketed in social media circles, just think of the potential it has once the marketing gurus at Zuffa get their hands on it and start pushing. From now until March 3, it's all about Miesha Tate defending her title against Ronda Rousey.

Anyone complaining?