Australia’s own, Bam Bam, Tai Tuivasa will headline his third UFC fight night on March 16th as he takes on Marcin Tybura in a pivotal fight in his career. The fan favourite has lost three on the bounce, all of which have come via finish and will be doing everything in his power (of which he has plenty) not to make it four straight.
Tybura will be looking to bounce back from a knockout loss to Tom Aspinall last time out. The Brit dominated his Polish foe to a lightning-quick 1:13 finish. Prior to that, he’d enjoyed two straight wins over Alexander Romanov and Blagoy Ivanov.
The two big heavyweights throw down from the Apex and you can get odds on this fight amongst others on the card by heading to one of the best sports betting sites around! This fight was supposed to go down at UFC 298, however, was moved to this card, meaning both men will be raring to go!
The Shoey King
At just 30 years old, Tai Tuivasa still has a long career ahead of him, especially for a heavyweight. He was in somewhat of an eliminator fight having won five straight by knockout, including a signature win over Derrick Lewis.
Two years ago today, Tai Tuivasa knocked out Derrick Lewis pic.twitter.com/ezGWMVouO7
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) February 12, 2024
Unfortunately for Tuivasa, he then ran into Ciryl Gane in Paris and was finished in the third round. With that being said, he put up a great account of himself and didn’t take a drop-down in competition as he was matched with Sergei Pavlovich next. Another knockout loss, this time in just 54 seconds saw Tuivasa in desperate need for a win. Taking nine months off, he then met the long, rangy Alexander Volkov. Volkov continued his own career revival with a second-round Ezekiel choke, this time in Tuivasa’s home country of Australia.
To avoid slipping to 0-4 in recent bouts and endure the longest losing streak of his career, Tuivasa needs to pick up the win against Tybura.
Polish Predicament
It could be an uphill battle for Tuivasa. The Polish star is 7-2 in his last nine bouts and knows how to handle big hitters, picking up wins over Greg Hardy and Walt Harris. Importantly, if Tybura is going to defeat Tuivasa, he needs to be smart when he attacks and cannot afford to risk punching with Bam Bam.
He averages 1.39 takedowns per 15 minutes and it would benefit him to lean on this grappling against Tuivasa. With a takedown defence of 54%, we’ve seen the Australian struggle on the ground before and this could be a hole in the game that Tybura could capitalise on.
Whatever happens, these two ranked heavyweights are fighting to stay in the top 10 and will give their everything to get their hand raised in the main event!
