Junior Tafa has been surrounded by UFC athletes throughout his combat sports career and he has at last been given a shot to put his own name up in lights via Dana White’s Contender Series.
Tafa will be the second Australian to fight in the upcoming season when he enters the Octagon on Oct. 20 [AEST], with West Australian Jack Della Maddalena already confirmed for a welterweight bout on Sept. 15.
But it’s the UFC company – including brother Justin — that Tafa has kept in recent years that has the 25-year-old predicting a seamless transition from professional kickboxing into the world’s premier mixed martial arts arena.
“I had a couple of amateur kickboxing fights and then I went into the pro scene at 17, and by 20 years old I’d signed to Glory [kickboxing],” Tafa told ESPN. “So I was just fighting over in Europe and the States for Glory and I’ve always wanted to go and make my way to the UFC, to join my brother and to fight in the UFC.
“Glory is the No. 1 premier kickboxing show; I feel like it’s the highest level of kickboxing that you can get to. I signed a contract with them when I was 20 and then I re-signed again when I was 22 or 23.
“But I’ve been training for MMA since 2016, I got called to join Mark Hunt’s training camp in Thailand and that’s when I was first introduced to MMA and the ground game. I’ve been doing it ever since then, but I really enjoy the stand-up side of things and I wanted to become a world kickboxing champion at the highest level.
“But with this pandemic, they [Glory] wanted me to go to Europe and I wanted to stay home with my brothers and keep training. And I just feel like now’s the time to introduce myself into the MMA world and show the UFC what I’m about.”
Tafa is in no doubt as to the role Hunt has played in raising the profile of the UFC and combats sports in Australia, New Zealand and across the Pacific.
“My personal opinion is that he is the Muhammad Ali for the Polynesian community,” Tafa said. “He’s a true pioneer and shows you can start from the bottom up. His story has inspired many of my people and, knowing him personally, he’s just such a great guy.
“He’s just such a good mentor to have and a great guy to have on your team, so I feel like I’m just blessed to know that guy and have a good friendship with him.
“He’s given me plenty of good advice over the years, the main bit being you’ve just got to be all in with your training, there are no shortcuts. This is the life we’ve chosen and you can’t be half in, half out. So I just put my head down and focus on this path. I just really want to make the best of this.”
Tafa recently assisted Tai Tuivasa with his preparations for a UFC fight with Greg Hardy, which the Australian won via first round knockout.
“We we had to make do with the situation because we were under a strict lockdown because of COVID, so we did a lot of training in the park, running around the streets of western Sydney and doing a lot of our sparring and drilling in the carpark,” Tafa said of his training camp with Tuivasa. “And for him to get that win like that, good on Bam Bam and the team.
“I grew up with Tai and my brothers and a few other UFC guys like Carlos Ulberg, we were all together before the UFC. So we’ve just all been evolving together.”
While Tafa is yet to have a professional MMA bout, he is confident he has the tools to be a success not just on Contender night but then within the UFC proper down the road.
He believes he has done the necessary work on the “ground game” should his Contender opponent attempt to wrestle his way to victory, and the Australian is adamant he is already among the top UFC heavyweights when it comes to the punishment he can dish out with his fists.
“I believe I’m already an elite level fighter, but I just haven’t been given the opportunity yet because of the pandemic,” Tafa told ESPN. “But I am already an elite fighter; I perform good under the big lights and I can’t wait to be under the big lights again.
“Like I said I signed for the international scene at 20 years old. I’m 25 next month and I’ve got a lot of experience; these guys in the UFC, I can’t wait to compete with them.”