Tai Tuivasa is heading into one of the biggest fights of his career and thinks the fans are writing him off.
For many years MMA was illegal in France. Although some of the biggest stars of the UFC call Paris their home, it wasn’t until now that they were able to showcase their skills in “The City of Light.” The UFC will be holding its first-ever event in Paris this weekend. The event will be headlined by French native Ciryl Gane vs. Australian Tai Tuivasa. Gane is coming off a title shot in which he lost by decision to champion Francis Ngannou. Gane has a lot of momentum coming into this fight and perhaps a lot of pressure. He is the hometown guy and should, in the eyes of the fans, beat the brawler Tuivasa easily.
Tuivasa is not letting the doubters get to him. He is confident in himself and his fighting skills. He admits to reading the social media comments but brushes them off with a laugh. He spoke a bit about this on The MMA Hour.
“I suppose I’m getting written off left right and center you know, Everyone is reckoning that I’m gonna get smashed. So it should be pretty easy for Ciryl but we’ll definitely go in there and have a crack,” he said. “Just see a lot of sh-t on the internet. Usually, nerds behind the computer who have never had a fight before but I don’t mind at all. I like to get involved. A bit of banter.”
Tuivasa shouldn’t be receiving so much hate from the fans when you look at his resume. In his last five bouts, he has defeated some of the best in the heavyweight division and all by knockout. He has hands like stones and has the ability to end the fight with one punch.
Tai Tuivasa believes that he is on a crash course with Jon Jones at some point
Tuivasa has worked his way up to the top of the UFC heavyweight rankings. He is sitting in the number three spot and could, with a win on Saturday night, find himself in the title conversation. The situation with the next title fight is a bit cloudy at the moment. Champion Francis Ngannou is healing from surgery, He could face Jon Jones next, or Jones could possibly face Stipe Miocic for an interim title. The tricky part is, that neither of those scenarios could happen at all. If that is the case, Tuivasa would gladly welcome Jones to the heavyweight division.
“I’ve said many times before, and I still stand bold, I think Jon Jones is the best fighter to ever fought,”he said. “That’s my personal opinion. Just see how he fights and you know what I mean? How he fights, he is probably the best fighter ever stepped foot in the cage. But is he a d–khead? Yes. I think he’s a d–khead. Will I fight him? Yes. And will he fight me? I think he would. Because he’s fought everyone and anyone. He’s one of the greatest to do it but I’d love to fight him. Yeah, not for anything else, just for the same reason I like to fight all these people who are made names. I think that’s what I find so good about fighting is one day I’m going to finish and say I fought that c–t, or I fought this guy, not kind of dodged people. Win or lose I’ll get in there and have a swack. If I dink him, I sink him, just like anyone else.”
Before anything else, Tuivasa must win on Saturday. From there he can call for Jones if he so pleases before doing his signature “shoey” for all the french MMA fans in the Accor Arena in Paris.
