{"id":622308,"date":"2026-04-21T22:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622308\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:51:08","slug":"tai-tuivasa-loses-opponent-for-ufc-perth-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622308\/","title":{"rendered":"Tai Tuivasa loses opponent for UFC Perth fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cBam Bam\u201d needs a new opponent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight fan favorite Tai Tuivasa has lost his opponent for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/429844\/ufc-perth-fight-card-start-time-date-and-location-jack-della-vs-prates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC Perth<\/a> after Sean Sharaf was forced to withdraw due to a fractured nose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sharaf confirmed the news on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cSorry guys, I fractured my nose and won\u2019t be able to fight May 2nd,\u201d he wrote. \u201cGoing to get it fixed \u2014 looking forward to getting back in there soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">According to sources, the promotion is actively working to keep Tuivasa on the card with a replacement opponent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Tuivasa (14-9) is currently riding a six-fight losing streak, though the skid has come against Top 15 competition. In his most recent outing, he returned from a two-year layoff only to drop a unanimous decision to Tallison Teixeira at <a href=\"http:\/\/UFC 325\" rel=\"nofollow\">UFC 325 <\/a>earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Before that, he suffered losses to names like Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Sergei Pavlovich, and Alexander Volkov.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Despite his popularity, Tuivasa is now firmly in must-win territory if he hopes to stay relevant not only in the Heavyweight division but also in the promotion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As for Sharaf (4-2), he remains winless in the UFC, having dropped both of his appearances via stoppage. He was knocked out by Junior Tafa in his debut and most recently lost to Steven Asplund in a Fight of the Night effort (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-espn-plus-fight-pass-events-schedule-mma\/409581\/watch-ufc-vegas-112-video-highlights-results-espn-mma-asplund-knockout-sharaf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">To checkout UFC\u2019s upcoming schedule of events click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/pages\/ufc-mma-schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBam Bam\u201d needs a new opponent. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight fan favorite Tai Tuivasa has lost his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,61604,1396,179146],"class_list":{"0":"post-622308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-fight-announcements","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-ufc-on-paramount"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}