Better in what aspect? Tavares is pretty technically sound everywhere. Tavares is definitely better standing, most likely better on the ground overall, and I don't think his wrestling is worse. His main area that he may struggle here is activity level. I don't think this will be a blowout by any means, but Tavares would have to fight a pretty poor fight to drop this one IMO.
Devil's advocate on Elias. I hate the dude but his striking is underrated. Tavares striking stinks defensively. His offense is not that good either.
Elias did very well versus Thiago Santos standing and actually took the first round spamming kicks on the outside. His defense was also very good as he got hit with one big shot the whole night.
Tavares has been tagged hard in a lot of his fights but that Hawaiian chin is so sturdy. I don't think Elias will finish him but he'll be able to tag him a lot imo. Also like you said he doesn't really have a high output standing.
Elias I think has the better wrestling and grappling on paper, if not even. It wasn't long ago Bubba freaking Mcdaniel took a round off Brad after he took him down and controlled him.
Elias was out-wrestled a bit by Mutante but Mutante is huge and has really good takedowns.
With that said I don't think it's gonna be a wrestling match. I think It's gonna be a craptastic kickboxing match with Elias playing on the outside doing his funky kicking game and outpointing Brad in rounds 1-2 and winning a 29-28 decision.
I think Brad is gonna be the bigger stronger fighter but I believe Elias is more skilled overall. Both of their styles are usually horrendous to watch though.
If Elias is somehow juiced, I won't touch anything but the over. If he's really juiced, I'll probably bet Brad and probably Brad points as I see him taking one round(probably the 3rd.)
Usually Brad is respected by the bookies so I'd like a good line on Elias. Brad was the favorite over Yoel, Whitaker, and Tim Boestch. He's been the underdog like twice in 14 UFC fights.
