Brad Tavares isn’t gone from the UFC afterall.
It was reported several weeks ago that the UFC veteran was removed from the company’s roster following his fight against Gerald Meerschaert back in April. It was actually a shocking move since Tavares was coming off of a win against Meerschaert, and is genuinely a well likely fighter amongst the fans. But notably, Tavares himself was quiet about the situation. Until now.
Brad Tavares spoke on the Still Friends Show podcast and revealed that he was actually in negotiations with the UFC and confirms that he’s re-signed with the company.
“So, my last fight was the last fight of my previous contract, so that contract expired,” Tavares said. “Funny enough, the UFC, whatever it is, I don’t know if it’s some AI-type shit or department they have—but they are on it because boom, that contract expired, and boom, I was removed from the roster.
“Anyway, I was in the midst of negotiating my new contract, which I did. That’s when all the news came out, and it was funny to me.”
As for why he didn’t respond to the news about his UFC departure, he knew the situation would be resolved quickly, thus he didn’t feel the need to respond to the rumors.
“It’s funny, everybody was reaching out, even people, close friends and family [saying] ‘hey, I saw this’ or whatever and then there’s other people that seen it and were like ‘I don’t like asking him about that’ or whatever,” Tavares said. “Me, the type of guy I am, I was like I’m just going to leave it and not address anything and just let people speculate.”
It’s not clear when Tavares’ next fight will be, but it’s good that the UFC has re-signed the veteran as he’s an entertaining fighter.
The 37-year-old got his start in the UFC thanks to the Ultimate Fighter in 2011. He ultimately lost in the semi-finals to Court McGee. Though he didn’t win the overall competition, he was eventually signed to a UFC deal and his first four years in the company saw him only lose one fight to Aaron Sampson at UFC 132.
Tavares has fought former middleweight champions Robert Whittaker, Israel Adesanya, and even current champ Dricus du Plessis, but he came up short in each match. Despite Tavares never earning a title shot throughout his career, he was never in a deep slump as his longest losing streak was two-fights and he produced several great bouts in his storied career. It should be fun to see who he fights in his next bout.