Tai Tuivasa will return to the Octagon for one more appearance this year.
Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie reports that Tuivasa and Sergei Pavlovich are expected to serve as the co-headliner of UFC Orlando, the upcoming Fight Night event scheduled for Dec. 3 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
Tuivasa was on a five-fight win streak that included ‘Performance of the Night’ awarded finishes of Greg Hardy, Augusto Sakai, and Derrick Lewis before it was snapped by Ciryl Gane at UFC Paris this past September. Despite being the first fighter to knock Gane down, ‘Bam Bam’ would be finished by third-round KO after ‘Bon Gamin’ recovered and rallied in the all-action affair.
After a first-round TKO loss to Alistair Overeem in his UFC debut, Pavlovich rattled off four consecutive wins. He stopped Marcelo Golm, Maurice Greene, and Shamil Abdurakhimov in his next three appearances. The Russian recently added the aforementioned Lewis to his resume with a 55-second TKO at UFC 277 in July.
Tuivasa and Pavlovich are ranked at No. 4 and No. 5 in the division, respectively.
UFC Orlando is headlined by a welterweight fight between Stephen Thompson and Kevin Holland.
Here is the current line-up (order not finalized):
- Stephen Thompson vs. Kevin Holland
- Tai Tuivasa vs. Sergei Pavlovich
- Derek Brunson vs. Jack Hermansson
- Rafael dos Anjos vs. Bryan Barberena
- Angela Hill vs. Emily Ducote
- Scott Holtzman vs. Clay Guida
- Tracy Cortez vs. Amanda Ribas
- Eryk Anders vs. Kyle Daukaus
- Michael Johnson vs. Marc Diakiese
- Matt Schnell vs. Matheus Nicolau
- Darren Elkins vs. Jonathan Pearce
- Marcelo Rojo vs. Francis Marshall
- Natan Levy vs. Genaro Valdez
- Yazmin Jauregui vs. Istela Nunes
Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more updates to the event as they become available in the coming weeks.
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