UFC light heavyweights threw down at UFC Nashville on Saturday night as Junior Tafa returned to 205 pounds and kicked it off against Tuco Tokkos on the main card.
Tafa (6-3) fights at 205 in the UFC for the first time during his promotional run. After dropping three bouts at heavyweight with his lone win coming over Parker Porter in 2023 the move to 205 seems like the right one former kick boxer. He came into UFC Nashville off a TKO victory over Sean Sharaf last October.
Tokkos (10-5) was in need of a win after dropping his last two against Oumar Sy and Navajo Stirling. He fought for his first UFC win against Tafa on Saturday.
Round 1 Tafa came out trying to leave dents on Tokkos. His opponent felt that and went in for a single leg takedown dealing with elbows to the head until he got Tafa down. Tafa was able to get to his feet, Tokkos shot in for a single and ate a bunch of elbows, but got the takedown.
Tafa got back to his feet and threatened a ninja choke, but the angle was wrong. He bailed on it landing nasty elbows to the head, but Tokkos got him down once again anyway. Tuco took the back on the ground with a minute left in the round.
Tuco ended up in mount and landed some shots, but Tafa was able get top position and finished the round with some big shots including one that cut Tokkos.
Round 2 Tafa came out with some bad intentions putting it on Tokkos landing massive shots and hurting him. Tafa forced him to stand, and landed on him again, but Tokkos was able to get him back down and control the position.
Tokkos continued to dominate the position and landed some ground and pound. He switched between ground and pound and looking for a submission through the round.
Tokkos finally got the arm triangle submission he was looking for and forced the submission. Tuco Tokkos gets his first UFC victory.
Official Result: Tuco Tokkos def. Junior Tafa via R2 SUB (Arm Triangle), 4:25
