Junior Tafa returned to winning ways on October 12 with a TKO against Sean Sharaf at UFC Fight Night: Royval vs Taira at Apex in Las Vegas. A tough bout was stopped by referee Mark Smith, who called it a day after a series of unanswered strikes from the New Zealand-born Australia-based heavyweight. The official time was 2:15 seconds into the second round.
With the victory, 28-year-old Tafa rebounded from a pair of defeats and improved to 5-3. Santa Ana’s 31-year-old Sharaf, who took the fight on a short notice, dropped to 4-1 and suffered his first career defeat.
In his post-fight interview with Michael Bisping, Junior Tafa said he missed his family. As for the first round that saw him in a bit of trouble, he said: “I just hurt my my leg, that’s all. I’ll be back.”
Tafa originally stepped in for Waldo Cortes-Acosta, and was expected to face Chris Barnett. The latter withdrew due to travel issued caused by Hurricane Milton, and was replaced by Sharaf.