Right around this time two years ago, a raw, relatively unknown Australian heavyweight sauntered into the Octagon for his UFC debut. Two years later, Tai Tuivasa has firmly established himself as a Top 15 talent, one who competes this coming weekend on the main card against Serghei Spivac.
This weekend, Tafa makes that same initial foray into the UFC cage, squaring off with Contender Series winner Yorgan De Castro.
While he’s just 3-0 in his career, Tafa has been around combat sports and high level competitors for some time, as he trained with Tuivasa and Tyson Pedro alongside famed knockout artist Mark Hunt a number of years, and his older brother Junior is a surging kickboxing standout competing for Glory at the moment.
The 24-year-old is still developing, but has shown the kind of punching power and gameness that everyone has come to associate with heavyweights from the region, having won each of his first three pro appearances without venturing beyond the second round. He’s more athlete and fighter than mixed martial artist at the moment, but the same could have been said about Tuivasa when he debuted and “Bam Bam” has made considerable strides over the last two years and the potential is there for Tafa to do the same.
De Castro will serve as a perfect measuring stick for the newcomer at UFC 243 — a talented, dangerous fellow debutant who knows what it’s like to be the underdog and succeed who will surely force Tafa to be at his best in order to get a victory. Should that happen, don’t be surprised if the newest addition to the heavyweight division follows a similar path to the one charted by his friend and training partner two years earlier.
