Tai Tuivasa was never that good

[blaseblase]

It's taken two long years but finally he is out of the top 10. He was never an elite heavyweight. He got a gift matchup against Derrick Lewis, who has the power to win and lose against anyone in the division. Tai fought him at the right time and got all the way to a title eliminator with Cyril Gane. Imagine if he had gotten a freak KO in that fight and was the one welcoming Jon Jones to the division. His grappling has sucked all these years, he never deserved top 10 status. He's a brawler with zero ground game. Someone with this skill set would never even earn a top 10 fight in the lighter divisions.

 

[ryun253]

He did okay in the UFC

 

[oski]

Was he ever your friend?

 

[Kb7]

I've said this 4years ago. A lot of people just didn't want to admit it because he's "exciting." Exciting doesn't always mean skilled. He reminds me of a modern day Cabbage Correia. He's probably going to get cut but he should head over to bare knuckle, his skill set belongs there instead.

 

[Natural Order]

He's literally a bar room brawler. Poor man's Tank Abbott with a much nicer demeanor.

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

in the UFC he went 3 fight win streak, 3 fight losing streak, 5 fight win streak, 4 fight losing streak... maybe it's a pattern? If he loses 1 more fight he might win 7 in a row after that!

 

[deanambrose]

Ehhh this again.

He WAS good. But fighters devolve with age and mileage.
He is clearly past his prime now for some time.

His peak was when he was knocking guys left and right. Now he is past this point.
He was even fatter than usual.

 

[Davidjacksonjones]

Fedor is much better imo

 

[Brolypr]

bareknuckle does sound pretty good right now

 

[AmericanMMA]

He did okay in the UFC

This

 

[blaseblase]

Ehhh this again.

He WAS good. But fighters devolve with age and mileage.
He is clearly past his prime now for some time.

His peak was when he was knocking guys left and right. Now he is past this point.
He was even fatter than usual.

He's only 31, lol at pretending he's "past his prime." He's always been this bad. His only win of note is Derrick Lewis, who as I mentioned has the unique ability to win or lose against anyone in the division. He just fought Lewis at the right time. One fight, one KO against a surging Lewis. That was the only reason he ever entered the top 10 and it took 2 years to get him out. You put him against Tybura 2 years ago and he loses the same way.

 

[Thesnake101]

Ehhh this again.

He WAS good. But fighters devolve with age and mileage.
He is clearly past his prime now for some time.

His peak was when he was knocking guys left and right. Now he is past this point.
He was even fatter than usual.

Look at the guys he was KOing though: Lewis, Sakai, Hardy, Struve and Hunsucker (lol).

There's no reason to believe he wouldn't be able to beat those guys again right now, maybe Lewis could be an exception since he carries fight changing power, but other than that you can see that every matchup Tai got in that streak was favorable to him.

Going from that to Gane, Pavlovich, Volkov and even Tybura (had some rough losses but is pretty consistent now) is a stern test for someone as limited as Tai.

He's also turning 31 this year, which for HW is pretty young. He's not past it, he's just fighting better fighters

 

[World eater]

You don’t need to be very good if you have a character developed. And he was drinking from shoes. Still, he gave us some nice KO’s and is a very likeable guy.

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

He is so sloppy, very unskilled and should be in BKFC. He is a fun guy and pretty hilarious at times, but he just doesn't have the skill or chin, I'm surprised though because initially I thought he will have a great chin looking at him, but he reacts poorly to getting hit and is easy to drop. Won't even go into his ground game.

 

[The_Renaissance]

He was never a contender he was just a super fun brawler. The problem is they've been matching him up like he might eventually get a title shot coz he's highly marketable. Now they need to just have him fight low level brawler. He'll get highlight reel knockouts he can be what he is - first fight on a PPV type do or die guy that gets everyone amped

 

[deanambrose]

He's only 31, lol at pretending he's "past his prime."

He's also turning 31 this year, which for HW is pretty young. He's not past it,

Age does not define state of fighter. It is only a factor.

Look at Jan who entered his prime at 37 years old.
I am pretty sure there are young guys who are so wasted that are already past it at young age.

 

[capnlarge]

He has 1 skill and that's hitting really hard.

 

[UnitZero]

Seems like a nice dude and entertaining fighter but I’m so glad he’s been losing. I haven’t had to watch a literal grown adult man drink alcohol out of strangers sweaty disgusting athletes foot planters wart infected shoe. Once he literally took a fans shoe and the fan spit in it before handing it to him and tuviasa watched the fan do it but still fucking drank it. The most disgusting shit I’ve ever seen watching ufc.

 

[tymikeson]

he took a beating at the end of the fight vs gane and i dont think hes been the same since that.

lets remember even 1 fight can have lasting effects. its not like their skill and health gets reset to 0 damage before each fight.

 

[OldBoy91]

For once the meme is actually true.

His grappling is shit tier EVEN for a heavyweight and that should cause alarm bells to start ringing.

He didn't know basic RNC defense and he's 22 fights and 12 years into his career. He actually helped Tybura to tighten the choke by pulling the choking arm down further under the chin lol.

Him being ranked #3 at one point is more of an indication of how bad HW has been than how Good Tai is or was.

And he got that spot by beating Derrick Lewis and Greg Hardy. Hardy almost KOed him as well.

Don't get me wrong. Tai IS capable of winning big fights and he has a punchers chance against anyone. But don't mistake having a punchers chance as being skilled.