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Junior Tafa saves UFC 298 fight
UPDATE: Following news of Justin Tafa’s removal from UFC 298 due to injury the UFC weigh-in broadcast team has reported that the fighter’s brother, Junior Tafa (also a contracted UFC heavyweight) has stepped up as a last minute replacement. Junior Tafa offered to step in before the close of the weigh-in window on Friday, February 16th and hit the scales at 249 lbs, making the fight official.
UFC 298 is set for this Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. The card is headlined by UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski versus challenger Ilia Topuria. The co-main pits middleweight ex-champ Robert Whittaker against one-time title challenger Paulo Costa. There’s also Ian Machado Garry under pressure to live up to his reputation against Geoff Neal.
UFC 298 Heavyweight bout scrapped
One (more) scheduled fight that fans won’t be seeing is a planned heavyweight scrap between Justin Tafa and Marcos Rogério de Lima. According to an announcement at the weigh-ins, Tafa is injured and won’t be able to compete.
This is the second fight to be pulled from the card in the last 24 hours as Tresean Gore is injured and his scheduled prelim fight with AJ Dobson has been scuppered as well.
These were not the first changes to the UFC 298 fight card. Originally, the card was meant to feature former title challenger Amanda Lemos against contender Tatiana Suarez. However, Suarez had to withdraw from that bout due to injury. She was replaced by fellow contender Mackenzie Dern. UFC 298 was initially meant to feature Marcin Tybura vs. Tai Tuivasa, too, but that bout has been rescheduled.
Justin Tafa was coming in off a Performance of the Night
The injury is poorly timed for Tafa, the New Zealander. His last bout, a first-round KO of Austen Lane at UFC 293 in September won him a Performance of the Night bonus and made up for a frustrating No Contest due to an accidental eye poke at a UFC Fight Night in June of last year.
Tafa is 4-2 (1 NC) in the UFC and 7-4 (1 NC) as a professional mixed martial artist. He’s won his last three fights aside from the No Contest.
No word has been given to the press as to the nature of Tafa’s fight-cancelling injury. We hope it is unrelated to the eye poke he suffered in the Lane No Contest which left Tafa with some nagging consequences.
“Cleared of any major damage to both eyes but both eyes did suffer some damage,” Tafa tweeted soon after the bout. “Right eye still in some pain, sensitive to light and blurred vision on the [left eye] but I thank God nothing that was going to end my career or cause serious damage to to my eye.”
Marcos Rogerio de Lima is coming off a KO loss to Derek Lewis at UFC 291 last July in Utah. De Lima is 21-9-1 as a pro, and 10-7 in the UFC. De Lima’s last Octagon appearance produced a highlight reel flying knee win for the popular Lewis, who sealed the deal by stripping down to his underwear in the Octagon to celebrate.
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