This cupcake thing is no joke. The beloved treat/nickname of the UFC’s No. 2 woman has cheerfully infiltrated her Las Vegas home, pillows and towels to fridge magnets and fan art. We’re making a batch of strawberry, even though Miesha Tate is in serious training mode for her July 25 fight in Chicago with fifth-ranked Jessica Eye. The bantamweight title eliminator likely will determine who gets the next shot at undefeated champion Ronda Rousey, against whom Tate has lasted longer than anyone—and suffered a gruesome injury from Rousey’s signature armbar.

“She just refused to tap out,” says Tate’s longtime boyfriend and training partner Bryan Caraway. “She’s one of the toughest people that I’ve ever met, man or woman.”

That first Tate-Rousey matchup for the Strikeforce promotion in 2012 changed a lot of minds about the level of intensity and explosive action women could bring, about their impact on a sport still coming into its own. Tate has the satisfaction of knowing she helped build it, but her ambitions are bigger.

“I definitely want to be the UFC world champion. As thankful as I am to be where I’m at now, I don’t feel content," she says. "I don’t feel like I’ve done what I set out to do, and that’s to be the best in the world.” Eye hopes to block that path, but Tate will face her with the momentum of three straight wins.

At 28, she’s been in mixed martial arts for almost 10 years and seems as hungry as ever, for challenges and cupcakes—despite the fact that most fighters wouldn’t get near one so close to weigh-in. Caraway, a rising talent in the UFC who’s fighting on the same card July 25, walks by the bowl of pink batter and says, “Torturous,” adding that certain people fighting up a weight class and blessed with crazy metabolism can risk it. Even if she wasn’t so blessed, something tells me Tate would still indulge and just work that much harder.

Hanging out with her in the kitchen, I learn: 1. Frosting from a tub can be deliciously doctored. 2. Always tap the baking tin to eradicate batter bubbles. 3. Eggs should be room temperature when added to dry ingredients. 4. If you're going with store-bought mix, stick with Pillsbury or Betty Crocker. (On request, she also gives me pointers on throwing a solid hook.)

As for Tate, she reveals herself to be the most polite sneezer on the planet, a dabbler in Cirque-style ring stunts, a fan of Vikings, mom to a hellion of a kitten named Daisy and steward of a houseful of young fighters. And yes, she makes a mean cupcake.

You're known as Miesha “Cupcake” Tate. What was the spark of your love affair with cupcakes? I always grew up baking with my mom. She was a professional cake decorator, so she baked a lot. Since I was a baby I think I was eating frosting. (laughs)

It’s funny that you embraced the word as a fighter. Earlier in my career, before I established myself and before women’s MMA was promoted or even taken seriously, there would be these girls like, I want to fight her—I know I’d beat her, just based on pictures on my MySpace because I was more girly. A “cupcake” in sports, it’s not really something you want to be referred to. Oh that person’s a cupcake; they’re soft; they’re a pushover, all these negative things. So I feel like they would think that about me, that I’m not tough because I wear pink and I wear dresses and I wear heels and I do my makeup and I have long hair.

You’ve proven that wrong, with a 16-5 record and many memorable displays of toughness, whether it was winning the Strikeforce title with a torn MCL or fighting through a broken orbital bone. How do you take hard hits that knock you down and come back? You’re going in there with that kind of anticipation; you’ve trained yourself to work through it. Some people have the instinct to fight, some people have the instinct of flight. I think fortunately for me I have the instinct of, the more I get hurt, the harder I fight. If I go down I’m definitely gonna go down swinging. I’m not one to give up, even to my own detriment sometimes where I’m continuing beyond what I should, like not tapping out when I need to.

The fights I’ve watched, it looks more emotionally intense between women. I think women naturally are more emotional creatures, and I think that just comes out when we’re fighting, that passion.

Did emotions overwhelm you when you were first fighting? Sometimes I’m even more emotional now than I used to be, because before I was showing up to fight someone that I had no clue who they were, never met them before. … Now I know more about the girls and there’s more things that are said and things that happen in lead-up. There’ll be people interviewing you, “Oh, you know, she said this.” It’s that kind of thing that gets you a little more emotional than when you had no way of keeping track of a person, what they were doing, what they thought of you. It’s just different now. It’s a different world. There’s also more eyes on you, so it’s more pressure.

You’ve helped draw eyes to the women’s side, but it also seems like the UFC gives credit to female athletes, and that fans have responded more than in other sports. We’re a little more accessible to the fans as far as being not only active on social media and in the limelight, but there’s a lot of personalization that goes on with the [pre-fight] interviews and things like that. There’s a lot of push and lead-up to the fights, and I feel like the fans can really get to know us as people—not just as sports icons, as individuals. … Plus, everybody likes watching two chicks fight. (laughs)

On your official UFC profile, you answered “Do you have any heroes?” with “None.” Can you elaborate? People ask me: “Who did you look up to?” “Why did you get into the sport?” And I’m like, there wasn’t really anyone. I just did it, honestly, because. Because I wasn’t scared to do it. … I went out for wrestling not because I thought I was gonna love it. I did it out of default because I can’t play basketball and that was the only other sport offered when I went to high school. … It was the hardest thing I’d ever, ever, ever done, and that’s what hooked me.

Are you best fighting on the ground? Every fight is different how it matches up stylistically. If I was going against a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt I think I would do fine against them on the ground, but how do our skill sets match up? … You always want to go where you have the bigger margin.

Heading into your fight with Jessica Eye, known to be a technical striker, how are you preparing? We definitely spend time reviewing the fights. I sit down with my coaches and Bryan and everyone and I watch that at the beginning of the camp, and we get a game plan together for what we think we’re gonna do. After that it’s just a matter of sharpening the tools that I’ve decided I want to use in that fight and then just preparing cardio-wise, just being ready, being in the best shape that I can be as an athlete.

Have your parents been supportive of your career, with the tolls it takes? When I was an amateur they really hated it. And then as I started making a little more money they were like, well, we still don’t really like it; we’re hoping you find something else that you can make money at. But I stayed with it, and when I became the [Strikeforce] world champion they became more supportive. They started to understand, okay, this isn’t some crazy, random thing that she’s doing. She’s actually good at it, and she’s pursuing it and she’s happy.

Ever have moments where you think it isn’t worth it? I think every fighter does. Especially right before you walk out. Right before, when you’re warming up and it’s maybe an hour before or half an hour before, you’re like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? … It’s a dangerous sport. It’s something you can’t just take lightly. You can’t go in there halfheartedly. You’re gonna get hurt, so you gotta really want it.

UFC on Fox 16 July 25, 5 p.m.