Preview: UFC Fight Night 244 Prelims

Heavyweights

Junior Tafa (5-3, 1-3 UFC) vs. Sean Sharaf (4-0, 0-0 UFC)

OPPORTUNITIES: N/A

Raw heavyweights hunt for a knockout in this makeshift encounter. At this point, it's safe to assume that Junior is the smaller of the Tafa brothers. He's faster and more athletic than his older brother, but that has seemed to work against him so far as he's often been bullied and physically overwhelmed at the UFC level. He shows at times that he is an effective striker, but considering he has been overwhelmed and defeated by the likes of Mohammed Usman and Valter Walker, it is difficult to reliably rely on “The Juggernaut” unless the Chance of a fight is almost zero on the way to the ground. Still, the situation seems to have worked out for him here, as Chris Barnett is being replaced with a promotional new addition in Sharaf with a few days' notice, and “The Smoke” seems willing to agree to Tafa's kind of fight. There isn't much publicly available footage of Sharaf, but what there is confirms the scouting report you'd expect from someone with four first-round knockouts in four fights. Sharaf mostly hits hard and tries to figure out the rest later. That could work in his UFC debut since it's essentially a coin toss, but Tafa appears to be the faster fighter and should be able to literally beat Sharaf even before the late notice is taken into account. Tafa was chosen by knockout in the first round.

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Gorimbo vs. Price
Tafa vs Sharaf
Haddon vs. Argueta
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