Tafa, a New Zealand-born fighter of Samoan descent who now calls Australia home, won his rematch against Lane via first-round knockout. The victory was made sweeter by the fact it occurred in front of his home crowd in Sydney, Australia. Tafa followed that up with another homecoming: a trip to Samoa, complete with a meeting with that country’s prime minister.
Despite a population of less than 250,000 on some estimates, fighters of Samoan descent are well represented inside the UFC’s Octagon, including Tafa, his brother Junior Tafa, Tai Tuivasa and Tyson Pedro, to name but a few. According to Tafa, though, the country itself has yet to fully catch the mixed martial arts bug.
“It’s still quite new; boxing is probably the main combat sport in Samoa. Some of them were thinking UFC was like WWE (laughs) but the potential there is endless,” said Tafa. “There’s a lot of great Samoan fighters in the UFC right now and once the locals get a handle on the ground game and how MMA works, I think they will flourish.”
The knockout win over Lane brought Tafa’s record in the UFC’s Octagon to 4-3 (1 NC), with all of his victories coming by first-round knockout.