UFC on ESPN 71 headliner Tatsuro Taira excited to show growth after first career loss

USA Today

5 days ago

LAS VEGAS – Tatsuro Taira went back to the lab with plenty of notes after his first career loss and is excited to show off his new improvements.
In the main event of UFC on ESPN 71 (ESPN, ESPN+) at the UFC Apex, Taira (16-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) faces short-notice opponent HyunSung Park, who replaced an injured Amir Albazi on less than one week's notice. It's a shakeup and a different opponent style than what he was preparing for, but Tairia remains confident his preparation will lead to a return to the win column against Park (10-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC).
"Obviously, the opponent changed on short notice, last-minute, but I've been preparing very well together with my team," Taira told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday's media day. "My team has been very supportive. I've been working on my strength to get stronger and get better. I train with a lot of fighters from my team, so I was actually prepared to fight anyone. I'm ready for this fight."
The fight will be Taira's first since losing a split decision against former title challenger Brandon Royval in October. It was the first loss of Taira's professional career. As the saying goes, "You either win or you learn." Taira took plenty of notes from his battle against "Raw Dog" and is "100 percent confident" he will rebound with a win.
"The last fight against Royval, five-minute, five-round tough fight, definitely made me realize I need to get better conditioning and, of course, the striking side as well," Taira said. "So, I think I'm back now, definitely as a better fighter. ... Conditioning and striking for sure, but not just that. I learned a lot from that fight in gaining experience as well. Now I'm fighting HyunSung Park, who is a younger opponent. Now it's my turn to show the experience and what UFC fighters are."
Park, an undefeated fighter who has finished nine consecutive opponents, including all three of his UFC fights, believes he will be able to knock out Taira by the second or third round. Taira believes the difference in experience and level of opposition will be apparent early in the fight.
"I would say this will be the first time Park will be fighting against a fighter at my level," Taira said. "Likely in the first round, he would understand that what he said was a mistake."
With a win against Park, Taira hopes his third UFC Apex main event will lead to him fighting on bigger cards at bigger venues. Six of Taira's seven UFC bouts have taken place at the UFC Apex. His lone appearance elsewhere came at the UFC's home for pay-per-view events in Las Vegas, T-Mobile Arena.
"Obviously, fighting a T-Mobile or big arenas would be something that I would be excited and looking forward to, but at the same time, I'm excited for this main event, as always," Taira said. "I hope to get this win and hope to get into a bigger venue like T-Mobile."