Athletes
Main Event Spotlight | UFC Fight Night: Tuivasa vs Tybura
We Break Down Some Key Stats For Saturday's Heavyweight Main Event
Originally scheduled to meet last month at UFC 298, the battle between two Top 10 heavyweights will finally go down this Saturday in the main event at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. Both men are looking to wash away the bitter taste of defeat each suffered in their last outings and maintain their status as elite and electric big men. A closer peek at their stats might offer some clue about how this one will play out.
Tai Tuivasa
If drinking a post-fight beer out of a stranger’s shoe were a fight metric, Tai Tuivasa would not only be the undefeated and undisputed champion of his own division, but quite probably of all fighters in all combat sports. The moments that historically have led the Aussie to those celebratory “shoeys” have almost exclusively been knockouts.
“Bam Bam” currently owns the fourth most knockouts among his active heavyweight peers and 10th most in UFC history. His knockouts of Derrick Lewis, Greg Hardy and Rashad Coulter—among many others—are as beautiful as they are terrifying. His five-fight streak that ended in knockouts between 2020-2022 is the second longest such streak in division history.
His ability to end the evening of his opponents early corresponds directly to another key metric: fight time. At an average of six minutes and 54 seconds, Tuivasa has the fourth shortest fight length amongst active heavyweights. Only twice in 14 UFC fights have the judges ever needed to get involved in the outcome.
Tai Tuivasa | Top Finishes
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Tai Tuivasa | Top Finishes
/
Tuivasa is on an uncharacteristic three-fight skid, albeit one that saw him battling some truly top shelf talent: Alexander Volkov, Sergei Pavlovich and former interim champion Ciryl Gane.
Alexa Grasso Talks Being TUF Coach For New Season
Marcin Tybura
When we last saw Marcin Tybura in the Octagon, he was on the wrong side of a first-round TKO against the current interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, in the main event of last July’s UFC London event. Prior to that setback, he had put together an impressive campaign that saw him winning six out of seven on the strength of his signature combination of standup and grappling.
A black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Tybrua’s ability to take down his opponent has proven to be a huge part of his winning ways. He has 20 takedowns in his UFC career, good for fourth place among active heavyweights. His takedown defense is equally staunch, thwarting almost 80% of his opponent’s attempts. That’s highest among current heavyweights, and third-highest in 265-pound history.
Joanna Jędrzejczyk Inducted Into UFC Hall of Fame Class Of 2024
But Tybura can still throw hands with the best of them. Greg Hardy, Luis Henrique and Walt Harris are among the names that have taken a loss from Tybura’s striking. His 1387 strikes landed are the fourth most in UFC heavyweight history.
If his opponent is known for relatively short nights in the Octagon, Tybura stands in contrast with a current cumulative total of three hours, 36 minutes and 31 seconds of total UFC fight time, good for fourth place in division history and counting.
Meeting In The Middle
It’s not too hard to imagine what the strategy will look like when the opening bell sounds on Saturday. Tybura will almost certainly look for opportunities to take down the historically grappling-averse Tuivasa, and Tuivasa will look for the early KO. And while Tybura has the elite takedown defense we discussed earlier, Tuivasa’s defense is no slouch in this department, boasting a strong 54.5% success rate.
If takedowns aren’t part of the main event menu at the UFC APEX, fans can almost certainly expect some intense and statistically equal striking exchanges. Both men are even money on striking accuracy (49.2 for Tuivasa vs 48.4% for Tybura) and strikes landed per minute (3.98 vs 3.55).
UFC Fight Night: Tuivasa vs Tybura took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 16, 2024. See the final Prelims and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass.
