Kevin Christian: Junior Tafa ‘under twice more pressure’ at UFC Perth

Australia’s own Junior Tafa enters UFC Perth this Saturday on a two-fight losing skid as a light heavyweight and an overall UFC record of 2-5, and his opponent Kevin Christian wants to make his life even more miserable.

Christian won via submission on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2024 and came up short in his UFC debut 14 months later, which led to some career changes. Christian travelled 2,500 miles to leave his hometown Rio Preto do Eva and join CM System in Curitiba, and now feels more “adapted to UFC level.”

Even though he’s 0-1 in the UFC and 9-3 as a professional, Christian feels it’s Tafa who has all the weight on his shoulders.

“He’s coming in under twice more pressure,” Christian told MMA Fighting. “He’s on a two-fight losing streak since moving down a weight class. He’ll be fighting at home, which adds even more pressure, especially with contract implications, so he’s carrying a huge burden. I lost my first fight but I’ve already made improvements, and I’m confident I’ll come out with the win.”

Tafa has only gone the distance once in 11 professional MMA bouts, and Christian is confident that the longer the fight goes, the better he will do. Tafa’s losses at 205 pounds came in submissions against Tuco Tokkos and Billy Elekana, and his heavyweight run in the UFC featured knockouts over Parker Porter and Sean Sharaf separated by defeats to Valter Walker, Marcos Rogerio de Lima and Mohammed Usman.

“Junior Tafa is an explosive guy with heavy hands who can manage distance well, but he tends to gas out faster,” Christian said. “He explodes early in the rounds but can’t maintain that consistency. I focus a lot on isometric work and ground game, but I also have the tools to engage with him in striking and grappling. It’s a very favorable matchup for me.”

Christian turned 31 in January and believes he’s finally fulfilling his true potential training under the wing of Cristiano Marcello in the south of Brazil, especially considering he’s now a full-time fighter after spending most of his MMA career juggling between training and engineering school.

“I had to balance both,” Christian said. “There was a period when I had to stop [fighting] and focus more on studies, then the pandemic hit and I stayed inactive for a while. I came back after that, already graduated, and left my engineering career behind, and went to war.”

Christian said, “engineering was my Plan A” because he felt “the sport isn’t really taken seriously” in the Amazon region, and it would be nearly impossible for him to make it to the UFC.