{"id":368623,"date":"2024-02-18T03:18:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T04:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=368623"},"modified":"2024-02-18T05:02:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T05:02:51","slug":"ufc-star-brutalised-after-accepting-last-minute-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=368623","title":{"rendered":"UFC star brutalised after accepting last-minute fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Junior Tafa stepped up with just 24 hours notice to fight Marcos Rogerio de Lima – but the gamble didn't pay off for the Australian heavyweight.<\/p>\n

Replacing his injured older brother Justin at UFC 298<\/a>, the Kiwi-born kickboxer was brutalised by his Brazilian opponent, suffering a leg injury after a plethora of kicks. \ufeff<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old had all the support in Los Angeles, but it wasn't enough against his more experienced opponent, with the referee waving off the fight in the second round.<\/p>\n

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"He's having a hard time standing, he tried to put weight on it and he stumbled," Joe Rogan said on commentary.<\/p>\n

"It just gives out and he is looking for a way out."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tafa was on deck throughout his brother's camp, but was only informed of his inclusion on the prelim card on Saturday (AEDT), giving him minimal time to prepare.<\/p>\n

Many praised the Queensland local's tenacity – especially considering he has a fight lined up next month against Karl Williams.<\/p>\n

The full extent of his leg injury isn't known at this stage, but Tafa was visibly struggling with the pain during and after the defeat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Also on the prelim portion of the card, Mackenzie Dern fell short against Amanda Lemos and Rinya Nakamura continued his undefeated streak agaisnt Carlo Vera. \ufeff<\/p>\n

The main event at UFC 298 sees Alexander Volkanovski defend his featherweight title against Ilia Topuria, while Robert Whittaker is in action in the co-main.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Junior Tafa stepped up with just 24 hours notice to fight Marcos Rogerio de Lima – but the gamble didn't pay off for the Australian […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":368625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=368623"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":368631,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368623\/revisions\/368631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/368625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=368623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=368623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=368623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}