CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Sydney is currently hosting the most dangerous men on the planet, as the UFC returns to the Harbour City for the first time since 2017.
And that’s not just the colourful MMA fans that will be filling out Qudos Arena on Sunday night.
The main card for UFC 293 is stacked to the brim with some of the best pound for pound fighters in the world – with promoter Dana White making a point of emphasising the best talent in both Australia and New Zealand.
In fact, there will be such a heavy Logan and Western Sydney presence in both the ring and the audience that the UFC now looks like it stands for ‘Usos Flogging C**ts’ – or as the Samoans say – the ‘Ultimate Fasi Compilation’.
Setting the stage for this weekend’s middleweight championship headliner will be a pair of hard-hitting heavyweights. Local boy Bam Bam Tuivasa and the Russian visitor Alexander Volkov.
For the first time since his Octagon debut back in that first ever Sydney fight night, Bam Bam ‘The Koori Klitschko’ Tuivasa will be swinging with his back up against the cage.
While he rose up the heavyweight ladder in style with five straight wins from 2020, to early 2022, Tuivasa ended up coming out second best in a bloodbath against Ciryl Gane in the first UFC to ever be hosted in Paris this time last year.
With one loss since then before Christmas, Bam Bam and his team hope to turn it around in Sydney this Sunday and chase a shot at the title over the next twelve months.
Known for his effeminate walk out songs and his undying love for country music, Tuivasa’s pre-match schedule is not like any other fighters.
Sources from his hometown of Western Sydney say that at just five days out from the fight night, the 30-year-old heavyweight has reportedly booked out an entire theatre at Mount Druitt’s HOYTS cinema to himself, and has turned his phone off.
Speaking to The Betoota Advocate, Tuivasa said the magnificent acting of Margot Robbie and directing of Greta Gerwig has prepared him for this fight.
“I loved the set design and costuming. The soundtrack was right up my alley” he said, with the enlightened, far away stare.
“But the story has really stuck with me. I’d never had to think about it before because it was just normal to me and then like, when they flipped the script, it was so obvious”
“I’ll be flipping the script on Sunday too. Welcome to Barbie Land motherfucker”
