Rivalries: Brad Tavares

Brad Tavares has established a reputation of impeccable professionalism across more than a decade of competition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and remains one of its Top 15 middleweights.

“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 semifinalist will make his first appearance of 2022 when he meets former KSW champion Dricus Du Plessis in a UFC 276 prelim on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Tavares, 34, enters the cage on the strength of back-to-back victories. He last competed at UFC 264, where he was awarded a split decision over Omari Akhmedov in their three-round encounter on July 10.

As Tavares approaches his upcoming battle with du Plessis at 185 pounds, a look at some of the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:

Lorenz Larkin

An active, multi-pronged standup attack paired with timely takedowns carried Tavares to a unanimous decision over the Millennia MMA export in the UFC Fight Night 35 co-main event on Jan. 15, 2014 inside The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia. All three cageside judges scored it 29-28. Tavares put the Strikeforce veteran on his heels and kept him there for much of the 15-minute encounter. He worked effectively to the body and head, answered Larkin at every turn and pummeled his lead leg with thudding kicks. In the second round, he extended his lead by executing a takedown and shifting to Larkin’s back. Behind on the scorecards, Larkin made his move in Round 3. The Californian threatened Tavares with a guillotine choke and punished him with elbows to the side of the head against the cage, making him pay for an attempted double-leg takedown. Still, the hole was too deep for Larkin, as the surge failed to forge the finish he needed.

Yoel Romero

No one wanted to face the 2000 Olympic silver medalist after his comprehensive performance against Tavares, as he cruised to a unanimous verdict in their UFC on Fox 11 middleweight feature on April 19, 2014 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. Romero swept the scorecards with 30-27 marks across the board. The American Top Team-trained Cuban brute tossed Tavares to and fro across the one-sided 15-minute encounter, split open his scalp with a gorgeous standing elbow and generally made life miserable for “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 semifinalist with his unique blend of power, speed and technique. Romero completed seven takedowns, piled up nearly seven minutes of control time and connected on 64% of his significant strikes.

Robert Whittaker

No fighter’s star shined brighter Down Under than “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes” winner’s when he bulldozed Tavares with punches in the first round of their UFC Fight Night 65 co-headliner on May 10, 2015 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in Adelaide, Australia. Whittaker drew the curtain just 44 seconds into Round 1. The typically cool-under-fire Tavares was never afforded the opportunity to shift out of first gear. Whittaker engaged the Xtreme Couture mainstay in the center of the Octagon, tested the water with kicks at multiple levels and let his skilled hands do the rest. He sat down Tavares twice with clean left hooks and separated him from his senses with a quick burst of right hands on the ground. It remains one of only three stoppage losses—Tim Boetsch and Edmen Shahbazyan are responsible for the others—on the Hawaiian’s resume.

Israel Adesanya

The City Kickboxing star ran circles around Tavares in “The Ultimate Fighter 27” Finale main event, where he captured a five-round unanimous decision on July 6, 2018 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Scores were 49-46, 50-45 and 50-45. Tavares whiffed on all but one of his takedowns and found himself trapped in standup exchanges with a vastly superior striker. Adesanya tore into him with a variety of strikes—knees, punches and elbows—from a variety of angles, methodically chipping away at the Hawaiian’s steely resolve. Tavares’ situation grew dire in the fourth round, where a short standing elbow from his razor-sharp counterpart sliced open a horrendous horizontal gash beneath his right eyebrow. Adesanya exploited the cut into the fifth round and even engaged the veteran on the ground, closing the bout in a mounted guillotine in a final show of superiority.

Antonio Carlos Jr.

Searing leg kicks, stout combination punching and sublime takedown defense spurred Tavares to a unanimous decision over “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil” Season 3 winner in a UFC 257 middleweight prelim on Jan. 23, 2021 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Scores were 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28. Carlos Jr. misfired on one takedown attempt after another, his situation growing increasingly ominous by the minute. Tavares hammered away at the inside and outside of his lead leg with kicks, mixed in a punishing jab and cut loose with power punches on occasion. He connected with the most consequential blow of the fight in the second round, where he stepped into a clubbing right hand that briefly dazed Carlos. Jr. Tavares outlanded “Shoeface” by a 73-57 margin and denied all but one of his 12 attempted takedowns in what was the Brazilian’s last pre-Professional Fighters League appearance.