Australia’s own UFC heavyweight, Tai Tuivasa, today trains next to a legend of the sport. Daniel Cormier made Tuivasa the offer to train at the American Kickboxing Academy in California, on one condition.
He had to agree to a secret fight in the gym. Justin Willis, a fellow heavyweight, had criticised Tuivasa’s fellow Aussie Mark Hunt. Tuivasa didn’t take too kindly to this, and this almost erupted into a backstage brawl.
The secret slugfest that got Tai Tuivasa to UFC 264
Tuivasa elaborated: “Daniel and I had been speaking a bit about me going there [to American Kickboxing Academy].
At the time, I was going through a rough period, on a run of three losses, and so reached out to see if DC would have me there or not.
DC knew about me and Willis and says, ‘how do we drop this problem?’ I said that only way to drop the problem was me getting my hands on him. I said if I saw Willis, I was hitting him.
So DC offered to set up a fight in the gym. Said if it got sorted, and nobody else knew anything about it, would I do it? I said ‘I’ll f***king do it today’.”
So Tuivasa packed his bags and headed for California. The result? “Justin never showed! Actually, he not only never showed, but moved right out of California, God Bless him.”
Tuivasa set about training hard alongside DC, in doing so amassing two consecutive victories. Following his bout with Greg Hardy this Saturday night, he plans to move all his operations to California. Tuivasa plans on making the most of his opportunity to train alongside a legend of MMA.
“My camp for this fight, it’s my last in Australia. From now on, I’ll be at AKA with DC. To get to where I belong, that’s where I need to be. Obviously Australia is home. My son is here, my family is here.
But when it’s time to work, when it’s time to go into fight camp then it will be overseas at AKA from now on.
And I realise how lucky I am to have somebody like DC supporting me. I realise this opportunity isn’t something that is offered up to everyone.”
Tai Tuivasa is a firm favorite at home in Australia and in the Polynesian diaspora. His fans will be hoping his resurgence at AKA continues this Saturday and beyond. Would you like to see the backstage brawl between Tuivasa and Willis? Let us know in the comments.
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