Boston, MA – It was a tough fight week for UFC middleweight Brad Tavares, but even with devastation back in his home state of Hawaii fresh on his mind, he took former champion Chris Weidman to a decision victory at UFC 292 on Saturday night.
“Freaking UFC, they put on right before I walked out, they showed the promo to this shirt (The UFC Loves Hawaii shirt), and they showed the fires. That was a little emotional for me, but had to keep it together,” Tavares told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.
“Unless you guys know people back home in Hawaii, and are hearing it from ground zero, what the media is reporting is not even close to how bad it is. It’s bad.”
Maui was hit with a massive wildfire that took the lives of over 100 people from the latest reports. The town of Lahaina was hit the hardest with it being nearly destroyed. People on the ground, residents there, and others have repeatedly tried to shed more light on the actual damage and loss that they believe the media is getting wrong.
“I understand confirmed means body they can match with identities, it’s at 100-something, but when this is all said and done it’s going to be in between 700 and 1000 people,” he said.
Some of the stories coming out of Maui have been unimaginable and Tavares had a specific one in mind.
“The things they’re finding…I just seen one this morning. He was either in 8th grade or 8-years-old, something like that, he must have been in 8th grade. He was still on last day of summer break or something, and he was home. His mom had to find his body burnt next to their family dog. I couldn’t imagine,” Tavares said.
“I was hoping that we’d get to get interviewed after just to keep passing the message that the people of Lahaina and Maui are still in need. They’re dealing with some crazy things.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Brad Tavares above.
