The Ultimate Fighter Finale: Tavares vs. Adesanya

Tavares and Adesanya clash for The Ultimate Fighter title.

The Ultimate Fighter is wrapping up its 27th season, and with the middleweight division in shambles the UFC could afford a bit of a shake up. On July 6th inside The Pearl in Las Vegas, Brad Tavares and Isreal Adesanya clash for The Ultimate Fighter title. Both Tavares and Adesanya have experience inside the octagon. Adesanya has fought twice while Tavares has been around for a bit longer.

Israel Adesanya

"The Last Stylebender" hails from Lagos, Nigeria and fights out of Auckland New Zealand. Adesanya stands in at  6-foot-4 and weighs 184 pounds. He is 13-0 in his professional career with two UFC wins under his belt. His first win came by way of knockout vs. Rob Wilkinson at UFC 221. Adesanya also beat Marvin Vettori by split decision in April.

After knocking out Wilkinson, Adesanya was pretty quick to initiate his own fanfare with this less-than-humble post fight interview. When asked about facing pressure, "The Last Stylebender" responded with, "No pressure, pressure makes diamonds, you know what it is." During the same interview he goes on to say, "Middleweights: I'm the new dog in the yard, and I just pissed all over this cage." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0DoA5swFg&feature=youtu.be

Brad Tavares

Tavares was born in Kailua, Hawaii, and fights out of the Sin City Sports Mockery HQ (Okay, so maybe doesn't train at our gym, but a Vegas guy nonetheless!). Tavares is 30 years of age and holds a professional record of 18-5. He stands 6-feet, 1-inch tall and weighs 185 pounds. He is also the No. 8 middleweight contender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPT23L5NOek Tavares is no stranger to the octagon. In fact, he was a member of Team liddell on TUF11. Tavares also has four wins by way of TKO, and two via rear naked choke to compliment five first round finishes. A winner of six of his last eight, the 11-year pro has even faced Robert Whittaker (Whittaker knocked him out in the first round back in 2015). Since his fight against Whittaker, Tavares has enjoyed decision victories against Caio Magalhaes, Elias Theodorou, and Thale Leites before knocking out Kryzysztof Jotko to earn his fourth straight UFC victory.

The Matchup

Firstly, we do need to address a few things from the Tavares corner; Adesanya is 6-foot-4, and compared to Tavares at 6-foot-1, it's not a huge disadvantage. Brad would most likely prefer to have Israel stand in somewhere around the 5-foot-10 mark instead. The second point here is a significant reach advantage in Adesanya's direction. Adesanya's reach measures in at 80 inches while Tavares is at a six-inch disadvantage in the category. That's a lot of reach to give up, especially to a guy two years your junior, three inches taller, being hailed as some by "the Next Jon Jones," although Adesanya has his own opinions about the comparisons to Jones. [caption id="attachment_104168" align="aligncenter" width="432"] Photo: UFC[/caption] Still, it's hard to ignore Tavares winning his last four after losing to middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. Overall, this is going to be one hell of a TUF Finale. Watch Tavares and Adesanya clash for The Ultimate Fighter title on UFC Fight Pass and FS1.