It was a rough afternoon for Australian fighters at UFC Adelaide as all locals with the exception of main card opener Jimmy Crute lost to their foreign adversaries.
That’s six Aussie defeats, some harder for the fans to witness than others. Heavyweight Justin Willis spoiled Mark Hunt’s UFC exit fight by staying out of range for 15 minutes and landing just enough punches to win every round. And then headliner Tai Tuivasa nearly pulled off an impressive route of Junior dos Santos, only to get knocked down and finished when he got sloppy chasing the killing blow (watch the finish here).
Tuivasa kept the FOX Sports censors busy as he shared his thoughts on that unfortunate turn of events with Dan Hardy. But one part of his message that made it through loud and clear: he wants a fight with Justin Willis.
”Justin Willis, you little bitch!” he yelled. “I’m coming for you, boy!”
“Only up from here” @BamBamTuivasa #UFCAdelaide pic.twitter.com/WhSYVMv8pk
— UFC Aus/New Zealand (@UFC_AUSNZ) December 2, 2018
The animosity between Willis and Tuivasa stems from an incident at the UFC Adelaide weigh-ins that we didn’t see but heard. Following their faceoff, Willis and Hunt got into some sort of altercation backstage that had Tuivasa threatening to “smash” Willis and his corner.
Some kind of incident just happened backstage at the weigh-in face-offs after Mark Hunt and Justin Willis had a heated face off.
Security sprung to action and Tai Tuivasa could be heard yelling: “Who the fuck do you think you are?!”, “I’ll fucken smash yous both!”. pic.twitter.com/dG8WkiGn6z
— Submission Radio (@SubmissionRadio) November 30, 2018
Willis didn’t hesitate to fan the flames of that dislike after beating Hunt, declaring “Tell Tai Tuivasa: Australia is mine!”
A fired up @BigPrettyMMA after his win over Mark Hunt at #UFCAdelaide:
“Tell Tai Tuivasa (@bambamtuivasa) Australia’s mine!” pic.twitter.com/3C6iCdeYOd
— Submission Radio (@SubmissionRadio) December 2, 2018
”He was disrespectful, I hate disrespectful c**ts” Tuivasa said at the post-fight press conference (video via Submission Radio). “I know you’re gonna fight, you’re gonna fight him. The cage doors are going to close and you’re gonna throw hands. You don’t need to go and try and intimidate someone who’s been around. Anyhow, that’s our horse, that’s our boy. One in, all in, it’s that simple. And if he wants to fight me like he fought tonight, he’s gonna have f**king something else coming for him, I tell you. And I ain’t no walk off, I’m punch his teeth in.”
But if Tuivasa wants a piece of Willis, he may have to come to North America to get it. After fighting for the UFC in Glasgow and Adelaide, Willis told reporters at the post-fight press conference “No more foreign s**t.”