UFC APEX – UFC heavyweight Justin Tafa is lucky to have a brother in the promotion as the two ended up switching opponents, in a way, and now he takes on Karl Williams at UFC Vegas 89 on Saturday night.
“Just like old times you know back at the playground. Sometimes I’m not ready to fight so my brother goes and steps in and fights for me,” Tafa told reporters on Wednesday.
Tafa (7-3) was scheduled to face Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC 298, but a late injury forced him out of the fight on weigh-in day. Brother Junior, who was scheduled to face Williams but was in his brother’s corner, took the fight in his place.
“We were really confident that my brother could put de Lima away. I’ve seen my brother knockout top 10 heavyweight boxers after going out on a bender, you know what I mean,” Tafa said.
“He can knock anyone out on any given night so we weren’t planning on him not taking this fight. When we went back to Australia, we seen the severity of his injury, and I told him man I’ll go and check myself and if they say I could be ready by fight night I’ll take the fight and do a solid for him.”
Now at the APEX he faces Williams who isn’t a brawler, but Tafa hopes to be able to use this fight to show what he’s capable of.
“Yeah I think he’s a good fighter. Karl Williams he’s good at what he does,” Tafa said.
“Heavy grappling style. I feel like I’m going to get to show case my all around game. I keep saying this every fight, but I think this fight will definitely show all the grappling I’ve been doing. I hope it’s not all in vain. I think I’ll put him away maybe late in the first or second.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Justin Tafa above. He takes on Karl Williams at UFC Vegas 89 on Saturday night.
