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Junior Tafa
“The Juggernaut”
New ZealandHeavyweightActiveage 29
7-6
54% win rate
L1 streak
Peak Vertex
2024-02-17 → 2024-02-171held 7 boutscurrently at peak
Bouts at peak
- Lvs · KO · 2024-02-17
EndedLvs · Sub · 2024-08-17 · score → 0
Upcoming
Scheduled and newly announced fights. Announced bouts are reported bookings not yet on the official card.
- UFC Shanghai2026-08-29vsLiu CeLight Heavyweight
Career timeline
Each dot is a fight — green wins, red losses, larger dots are title fights. Hover for details, click to open the bout.
- Win
- Loss
- Draw / No contest
- Title
3 wins6 losseslast 5: L W L L Wdrag to scroll · 1993–2026
Key stats
Six attributes derived from striking, grappling, and finishing rates.
Striking heatmap
Significant strikes by target zone, aggregated across all UFC rounds.
Round-by-round averages
Average values per round across the selected fights — toggle metrics below.
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Metrics
| Metric | R1(9) | R2(5) | R3(1) | R4 | R5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sig Str landed | 18.3 | 26.3 | 8.0 | — | — |
| Sig Str absorbed | 16.2 | 14.5 | 2.0 | — | — |
| Takedowns landed | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | — | — |
| Takedowns absorbed | 0.89 | 0.73 | 1.00 | — | — |
| Control time | 0:06 | 0:04 | 0:00 | — | — |
Fight history
Career UFC bouts in reverse chronological order.
- UFC Fight Night: Muhammad vs. Bonfim2026-06-06L·KO·R1 · 1:25
- W·KO·R1 · 2:42
- UFC 325: Volkanovski vs. Lopes 22026-01-31L·Sub·R2 · 3:18
- UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Teixeira2025-07-12L·Sub·R2 · 4:25
- UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira2024-10-12W·KO·R2 · 2:15
- UFC 305: Du Plessis vs. Adesanya2024-08-17L·Sub·R1 · 4:56
- UFC 298: Volkanovski vs. Topuria2024-02-17L·KO·R2 · 1:14
- W·KO·R1 · 1:24
- UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs. Blaydes2023-04-22L·U-Dec·R3 · 5:00
In the news
Recent MMA headlines that mention this fighter.
- MMA Fighting
Iwo Baraniewski continues his explosive run through the UFC's lightweight division, dismantling Junior Tafa with a devastating leg-kick assault at UFC Vegas 118.
- MMA Fighting
Australian light heavyweight Junior Tafa missed weight ahead of his UFC Vegas 118 bout against Iwo Baraniewski, stepping to the scale at 206.5 pounds—half a pound over the limit for the light heavyweight division.
Similar fighters
Closest stylistic matches by inverse-Euclidean similarity over striking and grappling rates.
