The co-main event of UFC Vegas 98 found Hawaiian middleweight Brad Tavares taking on South Korea’s Jun Yong Park in a fight that fans hoped would boil down to one word: banger.
Both men were capable of producing explosive fights. This one had also been brewing for a while, originally booked for July until Park experienced medical issues at weigh-ins.
The bout began with both men measuring each other out momentarily until Park thru a naked kick and ate a huge right hand. The punch from Tavares landed flush, and floored Jun Yong Park. Tavares was able to get to the back of his opponent but wasn’t able to find the submission. After a few seconds, both fighters were back to their feet, with Park on the attack. Park started to walk down Tavares, throwing short boxing combos.
Tavares was able to adequately return fire but looked noticeably uncomfortable. Midway through the round and Park corralled Tavares against the cage, as he looked to work to a takedown and slow the pace of the fight. Jun Yong Park searched for the takedown for about a minute before disengaging. With 60 seconds left to go in the round, Tavares began to land the leg kick to Park’s lead leg more and more. With 20 seconds to go in the round the action was stopped as Park claimed to get poked in the eye. After a short replay the action was resumed as Tavares had actually grazed Park with a punch.
To start the second round Tavares went right back to the leg kick. Tavares landed a nice body kick which Park and used to sweep him to the ground. Brad was able to return to his feet and the pace of the fight was off to the races. Park continued a relentless assault of short-range boxing on Tavares who utilized his feet and boxing to try and defend. A back-and-forth firefight.
A couple minutes into the round and Park began to target the lead leg of his opponent with leg kicks as well. Midway through the round and the roles have changed as Tavares played more of the aggressor moving towards Park and popping out jab-led boxing combinations. Tavares continued to walk down his opponent, increasing his pace but eating numerous jabs from his foe. The end of the round saw this trend continued with Tavares still looking to land that big combination as he did at the beginning of the first.
The final round saw Tavares come out throwing hard and landing big boxing combinations. Brad went gun for gun with Jun Yong Park for a few seconds before getting rocked and stumbling back against the cage. Park looked to time a jumping knee as his opponent rebounded off the fence but missed. Jun Young Park was able to salvage the moment by grabbing a body lock against the cage.
Both men struggled for strategic position against the cage for about a minute before Park was finally able to land a definitive takedown. Brad scooted toward the cage looking to both defend his back and return to his feet at the mid-way point of the round. Park now was partially on his opponent’s back and took the opportunity to land la couple of short strikes while maintaining wrist control. Brad elected to roll to his back, but Park seemed more than content to ‘play it safe’ and hold his opponent on the ground and land short strikes to run out the clock.
In his post-fight speech Jun Yong Park took the time to say- through his translator- that he would like his next fight to be against a ranked middleweight opponent. He also said that if the UFC couldn’t pull that off, then he’d like a money fight.
Official Result: Jun Yong Park def. Brad Tavares by Split Decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
