Preview: Brad Tavares vs. Dricus Du Plessis
Brad
Tavares has established a reputation of impeccable
professionalism across more than a decade of competition in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship and remains one of its Top 15
middleweights.
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 semifinalist will make his first
appearance of 2022 when he meets former
KSW champion
Dricus Du
Plessis in a
UFC 276 prelim on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Tavares, 34, enters the cage on the strength of back-to-back
victories. He last competed at UFC 264, where he was awarded a
split decision over
Omari
Akhmedov in their three-round encounter on July 10.
As Tavares approaches his upcoming battle with du Plessis at 185
pounds, a look at some of the rivalries that have helped shape his
career to this point:
An active, multi-pronged standup attack paired with timely
takedowns carried Tavares to a unanimous decision over the
Millennia MMA export in the UFC Fight Night 35 co-main event on
Jan. 15, 2014 inside The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth,
Georgia. All three cageside judges scored it 29-28. Tavares put the
Strikeforce veteran on his heels and kept him there for much of the
15-minute encounter. He worked effectively to the body and head,
answered Larkin at every turn and pummeled his lead leg with
thudding kicks. In the second round, he extended his lead by
executing a takedown and shifting to Larkin’s back. Behind on the
scorecards, Larkin made his move in Round 3. The Californian
threatened Tavares with a guillotine choke and punished him with
elbows to the side of the head against the cage, making him pay for
an attempted double-leg takedown. Still, the hole was too deep for
Larkin, as the surge failed to forge the finish he needed.
No one wanted to face the 2000 Olympic silver medalist after his
comprehensive performance against Tavares, as he cruised to a
unanimous verdict in their UFC on Fox 11 middleweight feature on
April 19, 2014 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. Romero
swept the scorecards with 30-27 marks across the board. The
American Top Team-trained Cuban brute tossed Tavares to and fro
across the one-sided 15-minute encounter, split open his scalp with
a gorgeous standing elbow and generally made life miserable for
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 semifinalist with his unique blend
of power, speed and technique. Romero completed seven takedowns,
piled up nearly seven minutes of control time and connected on 64%
of his significant strikes.
No fighter’s star shined brighter Down Under than “The Ultimate
Fighter: The Smashes” winner’s when he bulldozed Tavares with
punches in the first round of their UFC Fight Night 65 co-headliner
on May 10, 2015 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in Adelaide,
Australia. Whittaker drew the curtain just 44 seconds into Round 1.
The typically cool-under-fire Tavares was never afforded the
opportunity to shift out of first gear. Whittaker engaged the
Xtreme Couture mainstay in the center of the Octagon, tested
the water with kicks at multiple levels and let his skilled hands
do the rest. He sat down Tavares twice with clean left hooks and
separated him from his senses with a quick burst of right hands on
the ground. It remains one of only three stoppage losses—
Tim Boetsch
and
Edmen
Shahbazyan are responsible for the others—on the Hawaiian’s
resume.
The
City Kickboxing star ran circles around Tavares in “The
Ultimate Fighter 27” Finale main event, where he captured a
five-round unanimous decision on July 6, 2018 at the Palms Casino
Resort in Las Vegas. Scores were 49-46, 50-45 and 50-45. Tavares
whiffed on all but one of his takedowns and found himself trapped
in standup exchanges with a vastly superior striker. Adesanya tore
into him with a variety of strikes—knees, punches and elbows—from a
variety of angles, methodically chipping away at the Hawaiian’s
steely resolve. Tavares’ situation grew dire in the fourth round,
where a short standing elbow from his razor-sharp counterpart
sliced open a horrendous horizontal gash beneath his right eyebrow.
Adesanya exploited the cut into the fifth round and even engaged
the veteran on the ground, closing the bout in a mounted guillotine
in a final show of superiority.
Searing leg kicks, stout combination punching and sublime takedown
defense spurred Tavares to a unanimous decision over “The Ultimate
Fighter Brazil” Season 3 winner in a UFC 257 middleweight prelim on
Jan. 23, 2021 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Scores were 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28. Carlos Jr. misfired on one
takedown attempt after another, his situation growing increasingly
ominous by the minute. Tavares hammered away at the inside and
outside of his lead leg with kicks, mixed in a punishing jab and
cut loose with power punches on occasion. He connected with the
most consequential blow of the fight in the second round, where he
stepped into a clubbing right hand that briefly dazed Carlos. Jr.
Tavares outlanded “Shoeface” by a 73-57 margin and denied all but
one of his 12 attempted takedowns in what was the Brazilian’s last
pre-Professional Fighters League appearance.