Preview: UFC Fight Night 244 ‘Royval vs. Taira’

Middleweights

Jun Yong Park (17-6, 7-3 UFC) vs. Brad Tavares (20-9, 15-9 UFC)

ODDS: Park (-180), Tavares (+150)

An intellectually interesting fight that was a late scratch from a card in July winds up here. There’s a worry that Tavares is finally starting his late-career slide after a quietly consistent decade and a half on the UFC roster. A 2010 alum of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Tavares toiled for years on the prelims before settling in as a gatekeeper to the middleweight elite, primarily serving as a decision machine for most of the way. He has always been technically sound to the point of almost never taking opponents by surprise, but his combination of consistent volume, durability and sneakily excellent takedown defense has almost always kept him ahead on the scorecards until recent years. Tavares’ rare losses usually came to top prospects or future champions, up until a knockout loss to Bruno Silva last year, which raised the concern that his durability had finally betrayed him. He rebounded but didn’t dominate against a particularly flat version of Chris Weidman, but a one-sided loss to Gregory Rodrigues earlier this year—the Brazilian found a surprising level of success with his wrestling—raised more worries that Tavares might have slipped past his margin for error. He might still have enough to give Park a tough fight.

Park has been an entertaining fighter and shown some solid development during his half-decade in the UFC. Initially a potshotting counterstriker, “The Iron Turtle” did well to pivot towards his wrestling and grappling game, at one point winning four straight fights that included three victories via submission. A December loss to Andre Muniz resulted in a frustrating split decision, and while Park seems poised to rebound here, this isn’t exactly the best matchup given Tavares’ historically successful defensive wrestling. However, if the Rodrigues loss was the start of a trend rather than an outlier in terms of Tavares’ takedown defense betraying him, this could turn into a blowout win for Park. Even if that’s not the case, the Korean should be able to take the lead against an increasingly passive Tavares. The pick is Park via decision.

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Royval vs. Taira
Park vs. Tavares
Dawson vs. Garcia
Polastri vs. McKenna
Rodriguez vs. Morono
Alhassan vs. Fremd
The Prelims