Tai Tuivasa vs Marcin Tybura off UFC 298, moves to UFC Fight Night 239 headliner
UFC 298 took a slight hit yesterday when the promotion decided to move a heavyweight bout between no. 9 ranked Tai Tuivasa (14-6) and no. 10 ranked Marcin Tybura (24-8) from the event.
Luckily for themselves and us fans however, the match up is still intact, and will now serve as the UFC Fight Night 239 main event.
UFC FN 239 is to go down one month following UFC 298 on March 16, 2024, live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Tuivasa has hit a bit of a rough patch as of late, losing his last three-straight following a five-fight knockout streak from 2020 to 2022. This isn’t the first time he’s lost three-straight, however.
Coming over to the UFC as the one-time defending AFC heavyweight champion with a perfect record of 6-0 (six knockouts), Tuivasa would win his first three-straight bouts inside the promotion with victories over Rashad Coulter (KO), Cyril Asker (TKO), and former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski (UD).
This led up to him dropping his next three-straight to the likes of former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos (TKO), former WSOF heavyweight champion Blagoy Ivanov (UD), and current no. 8 ranked former WWFC heavyweight champion Serghei Spivac (arm-triangle choke).
Tuivasa then began to take his training more seriously, training full time for the first time in his life, where he saw instant success with five-straight wins against Stefan Struve (KO), Harry Hunsucker (TKO), Greg Hardy (KO), Augusto Sakai (KO), and former LFC heavyweight champion, former UFC heavyweight title challenger, and the man with the most knockouts in UFC history, Derrick Lewis (KO).
Tuivasa has however, as mentioned above, gone on a recent skid, suffering defeats to no. 2 ranked Ciryl Gane (KO) in their interim title bout, no. 3 ranked former FNG heavyweight champion Sergei Pavlovich (TKO), and no. 6 ranked former Bellator & M-1 Global heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov (Ezekiel choke).
Marcin Tybura was also a title holder prior to joining the UFC, coming over as a 13-1, two-time defending M-1 Challenge heavyweight champion. Tyrbua would lose his promotional debut to Timothy Johnson (UD) before rattling off three-straight victories against Viktor Pesta (KO), Luis Henrique (TKO), and Andrei Arlovski (UD).
Tybura then went 1-4 over his next five outings, losing to former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum (UD) and Derrick Lewis (KO), defeating Stefan Struve (UD), and losing to Shamil Abdurakhimov (TKO), as well as Augusto Sakai (KO).
The Polish contender caught his stride soon after however, winning his next five-straight over the likes of Serghei Spivac (UD), former AFC light-heavyweight champion Maxim Grishin (UD), Ben Rothwell (UD), Greg Hardy (TKO), and Walt Harris (TKO), before losing to Alexander Volkov (UD).
Tybura would become the first man to defeat the 16-0 former EFC heavyweight champion Alexander Romanov (MD) in his next outing, before also defeating Blagoy Ivanov, making him 7-1 in his last eight at the time before losing his most recent contest to current interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall (TKO) this past July.
As you see, these two have a wealth of common opponents on their resumes; each have beaten the same men, each have lost to the same men, and each have defeated opponents the other has lost to.
Does Tybura make it to 8-2 in his last 10 and hand Tuivasa his fourth-straight defeat, or does Tuivasa pick up his first win in two years and snap his losing skid?
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