Sean Sharaf is out. Louie Sutherland is in to face Tai Tuivasa at UFC Perth on May 2nd.
Like a number of recent UFC fight night cards in Australia, this one is a bit light on name power. Jack Della Maddalena vs. Carlos Prates is the main event and a certified banger. Beyond that? There’s not a ton of star power, which is where Tai Tuivasa comes in. The shoey drinking joker hasn’t won a fight since 2022, going 0-6 since then. But he’s still one of the most popular Australians out there.
The UFC looked ready to squeeze the last dregs out of Tuivasa’s career when they booked him against surging monster Tallison Teixeira at UFC 325. 8 of Teixeira’s 9 fights had ended via first round knockout for “Xicao,” but Tuivasa survived and nearly pulled off the upset win. He was rewarded with a soft rebound: Sean Sharaf, who is 0-2 at heavyweight, both KO losses.
Sharaf fractured his nose in training, though, leaving Tuivasa without a dance partner.
Now the UFC has rectified that. Tai will fight another fighter who is 0-2 in the UFC: Scottish fighter Louie “Vanilla Gorilla” Sutherland. To be fair, Sutherland has had a tough go of things. He was supposed to fight the very beatable Justin Tafa in his UFC debut, only for that fight to fall out and for him to get shifted into a match against “Clean Monster” Valter Walker (resulting in a first round loss via heel hook).
We’ll see how his most recent loss to Brando Pericic ages (Pericic fights Shamil Gaziev in Perth), but there’s still people who think Sutherland is worth watching out for.
We’ll get an idea when Sutherland fights Tuivasa at UFC Perth. Both men have a lot to prove, and while Tuivasa dug deep against Teixeira there’s still big issues regarding his gas tank and fight IQ, which both failed him in his last fight.