Tavares has always been a fighter whose success has gone under the
radar. He did well after his appearance on “The Ultimate Fighter”
all the way back in 2010 but mostly did so on what were
then-untelevised prelims. The Hawaiian’s style has not done him a
ton of favors. Tavares is just an even-keeled and well-rounded
fighter with the tools to patiently neutralize his opponents,
almost always scoring his wins via decision. That has led him to
hit a clear ceiling once he gets near a level anywhere close to
title contention. His 2018 knockout of Krzysztof
Jotko—Tavares’ first finish since a 2011 win over Phil
Baroni—raised some hope that he had turned a corner, but he was
instead outclassed by Israel
Adesanya and quickly finished by Edmen
Shahbazyan. In the years since, Tavares has only further
entrenched himself as a rock-solid gatekeeper. Injuries have kept
him out of action at times—he missed all of 2020 and enters this
outing on the heels of a year-long layoff—but Antonio
Carlos Jr. and Omari
Akhmedov each got nowhere in 15 minutes against him. Tavares
looks to hold serve against South Africa’s du Plessis, an
interesting talent who has done well in the UFC thus far. Du
Plessis has the track record necessary to be taken seriously.
Beyond success in his home country, he had a brief reign as KSW’s
welterweight champion in 2018. With that said, “Stillknocks” is an
odd fighter. Du Plessis is always dangerous but fights with a tense
style that banks almost entirely on his ability to find a defensive
opening and spring into action for a win. That has gotten him two
impressive knockouts in as many UFC fights to date, but there is
the worry that Markus
Perez and Trevin
Giles were exactly the type of defensively lax opponents to
make du Plessis look as good as possible. This is a well-matched
fight, particularly in comparison to Tavares’ last few bouts.
Wrestling- and grappling-heavy gameplans usually do not work
against the Hawaiian, but he is occasionally vulnerable to getting
sparked, though it usually happens early in his fights. While a du
Plessis win would not be a shock, it seems much likelier that
Tavares is too much of a step up in competition and can plug away
with his round-winning style. The pick is Tavares via decision.
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