Falling Short at Home
There comes a time in every fighter’s career where they take a step up in competition and show that they are ready to be a part of the top of the division.
It is the natural way of a career as fighters often spend most of their time fighting on undercards relatively unnoticed.
It isn’t until they get that first impressive win against a decent name that most people start seeing them as a potential good fighter.
As they begin to gain more and more status with those wins they start moving up through the division taking on guys at their same level.
Eventually, though the best of those fighters have to move on and step up in competition to show that they belong.
When they get this chance they need to take it as adding a big name to their win column can boost them in a big way.
They can go from obscurity to being a future star in one fight and almost every fighter gets that shot.
These fighters have to take on those veterans who have been through just about everything and if they take the win they immediately start fighting the best.
It is the gate that they need to crash in order to get to the point where they are considered a true contender.
As the UFC headed back to Australia they were ready to give two Australian fighters a chance to prove that they were at that level.
These two young fighters seemed to have plenty of potential but they had yet to truly test themselves against big names.
UFC Fight Night 142 was their chance to add a big name and throw their names into the top of their respective divisions.
First up was Tyson Pedro who had put together an impressive career to get to the UFC and continued that trend when he entered the promotion.
He took six straight wins in the light heavyweight division, including his first two fights in the UFC.
It came to an end when he took on Ilir Latifi and a restart to that promise stalled against Ovince St. Preux.
That fight against OSP was his first chance to show he belonged at the top of the division and it didn’t go well.
He got a second chance in front of a home crowd when he was scheduled to fight UFC legend, Mauricio Rua.
Although Rua was not the same fighter he had been years ago he is still a name in the MMA world.
Getting a win over him was going to be a big boost for Pedro to jump into that contender level in the light heavyweight division.
He showed a lot in the fight as he had Rua hurt early after a clash of heads had Rua going backwards.
Pedro couldn’t finish though in the third he was the unfortunate recipient of some bad luck tweaking his knee giving Rua the opening he needed to finish the fight in the third round.
It wasn’t the finish Pedro wanted as he has now lost two straight and although he put up a good fight it won’t be enough as Rua took some shine and moves closer to earning his title back.
The next up was Pedro’s friend and first-time headliner, Tai Tuivasa who had been impressive up until this point in his career.
After six straight wins, including three in the UFC, Tuivasa was given a former champion to prove that he belonged.
He was set to take on Junior Dos Santos who has not been the most active fighter in the heavyweight division but remains a big name.
If Tuivasa was to beat the former champion things would be looking up as he would take his seventh straight win and it would be over a big name in the division.
It looked like he was going to do it as the first round saw Dos Santos rocked with some big shots from Tuivasa.
Not wanting to punch himself out he looked to pace himself and eventually ran out of time to end the fight.
It seemed like he had the advantage heading into the second but like any heavyweight fight, it only takes one shot.
Dos Santos was able to come back and rock Tuivasa in the second and when Tuivasa was a little too cocky about it he was hit again with some big shots.
It put him on the mat and he wasn’t able to find his way back taking the loss in front of his home crowd.
It showed that he might not be ready quite yet for the biggest names in the division while Dos Santos followed Rua in proving he still has the ability to be a contender.
The night gave two fighters a big chance but neither could do it as two veterans got the better of their opponents forcing the younger fighters back to the drawing board.
The Sport Addiction 