Tavares is a good grappler who has grapplefucked guys like Omigawa, Gamburyan, Fisher, Black, Peralta, Weichel, Guida etc. He drew with Lentz, beat Stout in a close one, shouldve got the decision against Tyson Griffin and has only really been dominated by Khabib before fighting Choi. He got KOd by Wiman but it was a back and forth FOTN, and he was winning against Roller before he got caught by a combo in the 2nd
He was supposed to test Chois gurappling, tried to grapplefuck him and failed and got KOd easily in a couple minutes, along with Khabib the most dominant loss of his career. It was a VERY impressive performance.
Tavares is a far better fighter than Brimage at any point. Hes better than Brandao as well and on a similar level to Siver.
Tavares now is a better fighter than Holloway was when Conor fought him too. He was EXTREMELY green, like 20yo, in his 3rd year of MMA and a few months backed robbed Leonard Garcia of all ppl of a win. He wasnt anywhere near the stratosphere he is now