Ranked heavyweights might clash next month, as UFC is currently in the process of making a fight between Derrick Lewis and Tai Tuivasa for February 12th. News of the potential fight was first reported by Farah Hannoun and Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie.
If the fight can be finalized, it would join a UFC 271 card that is set to happen in Lewis’ hometown of Houston, Texas, USA at the Toyota Center.
Lewis stopped the upward momentum of heavyweight prospect Chris Daukaus just last month, finishing him within a round with strikes in the main event of a “Fight Night” card.
That put Lewis back into the win column after losing an interim title fight against Ciryl Gane in August.
Before the title loss last year, Lewis was on a strong run of four consecutive wins at heavyweight, making him one of the top names in the division.
A similar run can be seen on Tuivasa’s record currently.
Tuivasa has strung together four consecutive finish wins since 2020. All of them have come relatively early into fights, never going deeper than the opening minute of the second round.
Tuivasa’s most recent victory was his biggest thus far, stopping Augusto Sakai at UFC 269 in December.
Tuivasa recently expressed interest in the bout on Ariel Helwani’s “MMA Hour” program, claiming that he and Lewis are “the fun of this [heavyweight] division.”
The fight sets Tuivasa up for a potentially large leap up the heavyweight rankings. He currently sits 11th in the division, eight places behind Lewis.
The second meeting between UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker is currently set for the main event of UFC 271. Here is how the card is looking currently:
Bout 15: Israel Adesanya (21-1) vs. Robert Whittaker (23-5) (UFC Middleweight Championship)
Bout 14: Derek Brunson (23-7) vs. Jared Cannonier (14-5) (Middleweight)
Bout 13: Douglas Silva de Andrade (27-4) vs. Sergey Morozov (17-4) (Bantamweight)
Bout 12: Kyler Phillips (9-2) vs. Marcelo Rojo (16-7) (Bantamweight)
Bout 11: Alexander Hernandez (13-4) vs. Renato Moicano (15-4-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 10: Roxanne Modafferi (25-19) vs. Casey O’Neill (8-0) (Flyweight)
Bout 9: Carlos Ulberg (3-1) vs. Fabio Cherant (7-3) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 8: Orion Cosce (7-1) vs. Mike Diamond (3-0) (Welterweight)
Bout 7: Alex Perez (24-6) vs. Matt Schnell (15-6) (Flyweight)
Bout 6: Vinc Pichel (14-2) vs. Mark O. Madsen (11-0) (Lightweight)
Bout 5: Jacob Malkoun (5-1) vs. AJ Dobson (6-0) (Middleweight)
Bout 4: Ronnie Lawrence (7-1) vs. Mana Martinez (9-2) (Bantamweight)
Bout 3: Ed Herman (25-15) vs. Maxim Grishin (31-9-2) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 2: Nasrat Haqparast (13-4) vs. Bobby Green (28-12-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 1: Derrick Lewis (26-8) vs. Tai Tuivasa (14-3) (Heavyweight)
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