The Ultimate Fighting Championship heads back down under in December for a Fight Night event in Adelaide. It will be the second time in three years the UFC has visited South Australia.
It seems the main event for the card is set, according to Combate.com with Australia’s own rising heavyweight Tai Tuivasa to take on the former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.
Tuivasa has been campaigning for a fight with the Brazilian for a number of weeks and it seems to have paid off, with “Cigano” verbally agreeing to the bout in Adelaide.
Tuivasa last fought back in June at UFC 225 where he beat a very game Andrei Arlovski over three rounds by unanimous decision. The UFC sees Tuivasa as a potential future champion and rewarded him with a new six-fight contract recently after the win, which took his professional MMA record to 8-0 and 3-0 inside the Octagon.
Dos Santos competed last month at UFC Fight Night 133 against Blagoy Ivanov, his first fight after a 15-month absence. The former champion eased his way to victory on the night by unanimous decision.
This battle of heavyweights pits two fighters on the opposite ends of their careers. At 34, dos Santos may be looking at making one last run at the heavyweight title and will need to gain some momentum after alternating between wins and losses in his last eight fights. If the fight with Tuivasa does go ahead, it will be the first time the Brazilian has competed more than once in a calendar year since 2013. Meanwhile, the 25 year-old Tuivasa is unbeaten in his professional MMA career and his win over Arlovski proved that he can hang with the elite heavyweights in the division.
UFC Fight Night 142 takes place on Dec. 2 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in Adelaide, South Australia.