Junior Tafa Knockouts
On Sunday 27th August right on midnight NZT, Samoan Heavyweight MMA fighter Junior Tafa will kick off the UFC Singapore main card taking on Parker Porter.
Junior is the youngest of three brothers - his older brother Justin is currently fighting in the Heavyweight division in the UFC where he debuted in 2019 & they are both trained by their oldest brother Gerard. Their grandfather & uncles were also champion boxers.
#Watch Justin Tafa's story -
The 26yr old has had an impressive career in Kickboxing starting his fight career in the Glory Kickboxing promorion when he was only 17yrs old
Legendary fighter Mark Hunt then recruited Junior to be a sparring partner with him and had the opportunity to travel with him on many of his training camps around the wold including Vegas.
“Just through being part of Mark’s setup I’ve benefited so much, being able to train with top level guys like Uriah Hall and Travis Browne.
It was a bit weird at first, sparring with guys who are so well known to you, but once the round starts you just get on with it.” he told Glory Kickboxing
On his UFC debut, Junior took on Mohammed Usman in Las Vegas, another fighter with a brother in the UFC (Mohammed's brother is former Welterweight champion Kumaru Usman). Although he took an L on that fight we're looking forward to seeing him back to his winning ways.
In an interview with UFC.com when asked who inspired/motivated to start his MMA career he said “[Volkanovski and Adesanya are] people I got to see throughout my years of training coming up, so I got to spend some time with them in camps. It’s inspirational, motivating.
A lot of the Polynesian fighters coming up - Tai Tuivasa, Carlos Ulberg - those guys inspire me to be a great fighter.”