Hilo’s Brad Tavares survived a ‘crazy’ elevator incident and shrugged off rust and a ‘scary’ judge’s decision.
That may have been the hard part.
After beating Caio Magalhaes in a split decision, Tavares looked fresh, as if he’d hardly even been in a fight – much less a bout at UFC 203.
“I don’t even feel like he hit me,” Tavares told the assembled media on Saturday in Cleveland. “He threw a couple of kicks that didn’t do anything. I pretty much evaded everything else.
“I felt sharp, and I felt I dominated the fight.”
One judge agreed, awarding Tavares all three rounds (30-27) of the middleweight fight, another gave Magalhaes a round (29-28), and a few fans on Tavares’ Twitter timeline were among those surprised with a judge who gave the fight to Magalhaes (28-29).
The website MMAjunkie.com also gave the Waiakea grad a split decision. According to that site’s statistics, Tavares (14-4, 9-4 UFC) had a 119-112 advantage in strikes thrown, 16-11 of significance, while Tavares defended three of Magalhaes’ takedown attempts. The Brazilian fell to 9-3, 4-3 in the UFC.
“The only thing he really got was one takedown in the first,” Tavares said. “But I got up. I don’t even know if you want to call it a takedown. His time he had me back against the cage, he didn’t land anything there. In fact, I think I landed the better shots.
“I think I dominated the fight. For them to call a split had me worried.”
He returned from a 16-month layoff to earn his first victory since the Jan. 3, 2015. That win, a unanimous decision against Nate Marquardt, was his lone triumph in his last four fights as entered the octagon Saturday.
But Tavares said anxiety was not an issue. When it came time for the gloves to fly, he felt crisp.
“I had been kind of wondering … on fight night how I was going to feel,” Tavares said. “As the days kept progressing, fight week, check-in, media, whatever, weigh-ins, it felt like another day to me.
“I felt strong in there, I felt like I saw everything he was throwing. It felt good to be back in there.”
The card, which was capped when Stipe Miocic defended his heavyweight title with a first-round knockout of Alistair Overeem, also featured two other fighters with Hawaii ties.
Yancy Medeiros, who recently moved to Aiea, Oahu, submitted Sean Spencer in the second round in a battle of welterweights, while heavyweight Travis Browne of Kailua, Oahu, lost a decision to Fabricio Werdum.
Afterward, Tavares said it’s time for a UFC Hawaii event, especially considering the reemergence of Hilo’s BJ Penn and the success of Max Holloway of Waianae, Oahu.
“The (UFC) has to come,” Tavares said. “They do cards in all stretches of the world in, I don’t know, it looks like little gymnasiums.
“There are a waive of Hawaii fighters right now and they are going to keep coming.”
On Friday, Tavares was involved in a elevator malfunction that forced C.B. Dollaway off the card because of a back injury.
According to reports, Tavares, Medeiros, Dollaway, Werdum, fellow fighter Urijah Faber and others were stuck in a free-falling elevator at a Cleveland hotel after weigh-ins.
Tavares said he and his team were on the second floor and had entered the elevator when, with the doors open, it rose a bit and then dropped – apparently because the weight limit had been exceeded – to the basement with a “boom.”
“That was a crazy thing, the doors didn’t even close,” Tavares said. “We definitely felt it.”
He said it wasn’t scary, but added: “Imagine if we fell from higher than the second floor. We could have sustained major injuries and this card might not even have happened.”
Has he taken the stairs since?
“Nah, I took the elevator that works,” Tavares said.
Back on track in the octagon, his career could be on the rise as well