Thiago Tavares

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC Career
4 Mixed martial arts record
5 Gallery
6 External links

Profile

Thiago Tavares (born November 8, 1984) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist training out of Brazilian Top Team affiliate, Murilo Rupp's Ataque-Duplo.

He stands 5 ft. 7 in. (170 cm) tall and fights in the lightweight division (155 lbs.).

Tavares is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and currently fights as a lightweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Thiago Tavares made his professional mixed martial arts debut at Reality Fighting 5 on November 1, 2003. He submitted opponent, James Jones, with a triangle choke in the second round to kick off his career.

After winning his next four fights via a variety of choke submissions, Tavares entered a one night four man tournament run by the Rumble of Amsterdam organization. Tavares took out the tournament with a heel hook submission in the opening round and another submission win in the final.

Two months later, in November of 2006, Tavares picked up his first stoppage victory winning via TKO in the first round over Ulas Aslan at a 2 Hot 2 Handle event.

Under a month later, Tavares scored his 10th consecutive victory, and his 10th via either submission or stoppage when he submitted Marc Duncan with a rear naked choke in the first round.

UFC Career

In 2007, Tavares signed with a contract with the UFC. He made his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 9 against resilient Japanese fighter, Naoyuki Kotani. Tavares was forced to go the distance for the first time in his professional career but managed to pull out the victory via unanimous decision.

At UFC Fight Night 10, Tavares faced the highly regarded Jason Black. Tavares controlled the majority of the bout, damaging Black's face in the first round with some nasty elbows. In the second round, Tavares scored a takedown on Black only to be reversed. With Black in his guard, Tavares threw up his hips and slipped on a triangle choke forcing the tap at 2:49 mark.

With his spotless 12-0 record, Tavares was given a spot on the main card of UFC 76 when he was matched up against Xtreme Couture lightweight, Tyson Griffin. In a bout that earned both fighters, "Fight of the Night", Tavares looked dangerous both on the feet and on the ground as he worked his way into some dangerous positions. Griffin weathered threw Tavares' attempts however and controlled the pace and position of the bout for the majority of the time. The fight went to the judges and was announced as a unanimous decision win for Griffin, giving Tavares his first professional loss.

He rebounded from the loss four months later as he took an uninspired decision win over Michihiro Omigawa at UFC Fight Night 12.

In June of 2008, Tavares faced TUF 5 quarter finalist, Matt Wiman on the undercard of UFC 85. In another "Fight of the Night", Tavares and Wiman fought a frantic pace in the first round and part of the second before Tavares was knocked cold by a stiff Wiman punch at 1:57 of round 2.

Three months later, Tavares faced Kurt Pellegrino at UFC 88 hoping to once again rebound from a loss. Things got off to a bad start as he was floored by Pellegrino and pounded on for almost the entirity of round 1, in a round many saw as a 10-8 round. Tavares kept things close in the second and third rounds but couldn't make up the deficit of the first, losing via unanimous decision.

In a must win bout, Tavares faced TUF 5 finalist, Manny Gamburyan at UFC 94. In a close bout, Tavares squeaked by unanimous decision (29-28 x3).

Tavares will next return to the Octagon at The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale when he faces TUF 2 veteran, Melvin Guillard.