Tai Tuivasa Knocks Out Sakai, Pulls Off Another Shoey at UFC 269
UFC 269 goes down tonight, Charles Oliveira vs Dustin Poirier serves as the main event for the event which is taking place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
In the co-main event, Amanda Nunes will defend her Bantamweight belt against Julianna Pena.
A stacked prelims includes former UFC champion Dominick Cruz, and a featherweight clash between Dan Ige and Josh Emmett.
Also, a heavyweight bout between two of the gamest fighters in the division – Augusto Sakai vs. Tai Tuivasa our featured bout for this play-by-play.
Sakai (15-3), started his first four UFC fights, Augusto Sakai (15-3-1) was flying high on six-fight win streak. But has since hit a bump in the road – falling short to tougher competition getting outclassed and finished by Alistair Overeem (2020) and Jairzinho Rozenstruik (2021). The Brazilian looks to end his losing streak.
Tuivasa (13-3), started his UFC tenure with two wins over Cyril Asker and Andrei Arlovski, and he had a record of 9-0 with only Arlovski making it to a decision. But it didn’t lats long, he would fall short against Junior dos Santos, Blagoy Ivanov, and Sergey Spivak. But a recent resurgence includes three back-to-back knockouts against Stefan Struve, Harry Hunsucker and Greg Hardy all in the first round.
Continue reading to see how the heavyweight clash went down:
Here’s how the fight played out round by round:
ROUND 1:
Third man in the octagon is Mark Smith. Heavyweights on deck, here we go. A patient minute for both men. Tai is controlling the centre, he opens up with a inside calf kick. Tai gets Sakai up against the cage and throws hooks to the body. Tai has the Brazilian pushed up on the fence. A big uppercut landed by Tai. A very tentative and slow opening round. Sakai reverses the position on the fence and is landing knees to the body. Tai is utilised the elbows – one lands clean. They break and the bell goes for the first five minutes.
MyMMANews.com scores it: 10-9 to Tai Tuivasa
ROUND 2:
Round two is apon us, here we go. Tai opens up EARLY and landed a swift check hook, he pours on the pressure and lands bombs against the fence – Sakai is OUT COLD.
Official Result: Tai Tuivasa def. Augusto Sakai via KO – Round 2, 0:26
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— UFC (@ufc) December 12, 2021
