Tai Tuivasa hit a low point when he dropped his fourth consecutive UFC bout earlier this year.
“I was so angry,” Tuivasa said. “And my head, it was everywhere. I just kept saying to myself, ‘How s—t is this…how s—t is it to be a loser?’”
The 31-year-old Tuivasa quickly became a fan favorite in the promotion thanks to his affable nature, penchant for knockouts and post-fight shoey celebrations. “Bam Bam” had endured a three-fight losing streak earlier in his UFC tenure, but he rebounded with a five-fight tear that culminated with a brutal elbow finish of knockout king— all inside the distance. He hoped that the Tybura fight would mark a turnaround, but it didn’t. Tuivasa now knows that he still wasn’t in the right head space.
“The reason for losing my last couple of fights, it’s been mental,” he said. “Those times, I haven’t been in the fight. Or not really. I wanted to fight. Wanted to hurt. But I just wasn’t there, you know? I’ve carried s—t from outside the cage into my fights, and it’s shown. “Because I really wanted that fight to be where everything changed. Wanted that to be my comeback. But I was still too angry. So it wasn’t.”
Tuivasa doesn’t specify exactly what was going on outside the cage, only that it was “personal stuff.” However, by moving his training camp away from his hometown of Sydney, Tuivasa was able to gain some fresh perspective. He believes that setting up shop in Dubai has improved his focus significantly ahead of his“But it gets to the point where you say ‘OK, f-k it’,” Tuivasa said. “Having to leave my son, it’s tough. But I’m from the hood, man. I know nobody changes anything but me.
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