The Ultimate Fighting Championship loves heavyweight headliners, and fans will be getting one in mid-March.
Per the organization on Friday, Tai Tuivasa (14-6) will throw bombs for five rounds or less against Marcin Tybura (24-8) on March 16. The heavyweights will now headline the currently unnumbered Fight Night event on that date, likely to be coined UFC Fight Night 239 should the main card air on ESPN+. The two big men were booked against one another at UFC 298, but the promotion elected to slide them back a month to put on the marquee of this UFC Apex show.
Tuivasa will be looking to get out of a slump, as he has suffered three straight stoppage losses since September 2022. Those defeats came against the upper echelon of the division, as Ciryl Gane, Sergei Pavlovich and Alexander Volkov all dispatched him in a little over one year’s time. Before then, the boisterous Aussie slugged his way through the opposition, racking up five straight knockouts from 2020 to early 2022, blasting the likes of Derrick Lewis and Stefan Struve on his way up the ladder.
Polish contender Tybura will be hoping to right the ship after a deflating 73-second loss to future interim champ Tom Aspinall in July 2023. That loss put an end to a two-fight win streak, where he took home decisions over Blagoy Ivanov and Alexander Romanov. “Tybur” also strung together a five-fight win streak in the Octagon at one point, with a trio of decisions along with knockouts of Greg Hardy and Walt Harris. Tybura is currently in second place with the most decision wins in heavyweight history (seven), trailing only the mighty Andrei Arlovski’s 12.
The UFC Fight Night card on March 16 will take place in the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, with Tuivasa-Tybura on tap as the headliner. Bouts likely serving on the main card include a lightweight banger between Thiago Moises and Brad Riddell, and a welterweight clash between Bryan Battle and Ange Loosa.
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