Against all odds, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will still have
12 fights on the
UFC 298 billing.
On Friday morning, the UFC announced during the UFC 298 weigh-in
show that Justin Tafa
had suffered an injury that would be keeping him from his
heavyweight fight with Marcos
Rogerio de Lima (21-9-1). An hour later, the promotion stated
that it was working on a replacement fighter to keep Lima on the
card. That fighter would be Tafa’s brother, Junior Tafa
(5-1), who was cleared and allowed to weigh in and serve as the
replacement. This is the first such occasion of one brother
replacing another in organizational history, but not the first
overall in the sport of MMA.
Lima stays on the lineup in hopes of putting a 33-second knockout
loss to Derrick
Lewis in July 2023 behind him. Before getting lamped by “The
Black Beast,” the Brazilian had strung together two wins over
Andrei
Arlovski and Waldo
Cortes-Acosta—while landing a rare submission on the former in
quick fashion. The former light heavyweight has the unusual
distinction of alternating wins and losses for 11 straight bouts in
his UFC tenure, which remains a record tied with Jake
Collier.
“The Juggernaut” steps in unexpectedly with a bit of momentum on
his side, as he flattened Parker
Porter in 2023 with one punch. The promotional debut of the
27-year-old did not go his way before the Porter match, as Mohammed
Usman stifled him en route to a decision win. Tafa rumbled his
way to the UFC with four knockouts in the span of less than six
months in 2022, which also happens to be the year in which he made
his pro MMA debut.
UFC 298 goes down at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, on
Feb. 17. The main attraction will see Alexander
Volkanovski defend his featherweight crown against Ilia
Topuria. The co-featured matchup places former middleweight
kingpin Robert
Whittaker against Paulo
Costa. The remainder of the main card draws a welterweight tilt
between Geoff Neal
and Ian
Garry, a bantamweight clash pitting Merab
Dvalishvili against Henry
Cejudo and a wild one at 185 pounds when Anthony
Hernandez faces Roman
Kopylov.