Preview: UFC 293 ‘Adesanya vs. Strickland’

Heavyweights

Justin Tafa (6-3, 3-3 UFC) vs. Austen Lane (12-3, 0-0 UFC)

ODDS: Tafa (-218), Lane (+180)

Let them try this again. Lane’s UFC debut was a fun side story as part of the promotion’s trip to Jacksonville, Florida, in June. A former NFL defensive end, Lane had found his most success during a three-year stint with the Jaguars. After his NFL career was over, Lane transitioned to mixed martial arts and slowly worked his way up the ladder as a prospect, eventually earning a contract via Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022; and after a few false starts, he was finally set to make his UFC debut in Jacksonville against Tafa. The fight lasted all of 29 seconds before an unintentional eye poke took Tafa out of the fight and resulted in a no contest. Now, the UFC runs the fight back on Tafa’s home turf of Australia. Tafa has been an interesting fighter to track. Initially a wildman on the regional scene, a knockout loss to Yorgan De Castro caused Tafa to overcompensate a bit in terms of excessive patience. However, his last few fights have seen him pick his spots well to annihilate his opponents with a big counter, which seems like his path to victory in this assignment. Lane is an impressive athlete for his size, but tends to throw out a lot of ideas that put him in bad positions. While he can usually lean on that athleticism to get him out of trouble, his margin for error seems gone against a crushing hitter like Tafa. The pick is Tafa via first-round knockout.

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Adesanya vs. Strickland
Volkov vs. Tuivasa
Kape vs. dos Santos
Tafa vs. Lane
Turkalj vs. Pedro
The Prelims