Las Vegas, NV – A historic weight miss and visa issues were not enough to stop UFC heavyweight Justin Tafa from getting past Harry Hunsucker via TKO at UFC Vegas 45 at the UFC APEX on Saturday night.
Tafa (5-3) traded leg kicks with Hunsucker (7-5) until he was able to hurt him with a punch and then finish the fight with a head kick that put Harry out even though his guard was up.
“I let him have his little moments just to tire his arms out and then once I felt he’d tire enough I changed positions, got up, and I saw his heavy breathing. I knew his hands weren’t going to protect his head,” Tafa told the media at his post-fight scrum.
“Yeah man it was just like kicking a Rugby ball.”
Tafa made some unfortunate heavyweight history as he became the first UFC heavyweight ever to miss weight as he came in one-pound over the 265 limit.
“This week I water loaded like I usually do but I lost no weight at all. I knew by the time it hit Thursday I was like, damn man, usually I’m down like 4-5 pounds. I knew it was going to be a hard cut. Man I sauna’d for like 11-12 hours just to get it and by the time I hit that last pound I was just like nah. I can’t. I don’t think I could fight if I continue.”
“But you know like all I wanted was to make history but that wasn’t the way I wanted to,” Tafa said with a laugh.
As for what is next for the heavyweight? Getting a win back he feels he deserved against Carlos Felipe from back when they fought in January at UFC on ABC 1.
“Man I would love to get that fight back. Everyone knows how that should have went. And we should have got fight of the night but Max Holloway just had to put on the combo record of all time on that guy. Of course.”
Watch the rest of Justin Tafa’s UFC Vegas 45 post-fight interview above.
