Tai Tuivasa has hailed a “fat camp” in Thailand for helping him head into a career-defining showdown against Frenchman Ciryl Gane where he’s determined to “upset the party” as UFC makes its debut in Paris.
The City of Light is known more for fashionistas treading the catwalk than fighters prowling a cage, with officials long saying: ‘Non, merci’ to UFC.
But with the ban on cage fighting in France now lifted, Tuivasa is determined to give fans a show against Gane, with a win set to earn him a heavyweight title shot against Francis Ngannou.
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It’s a hard-earnt opportunity for Tuivasa and one he is taking so seriously he planed a pre-training camp in Thailand to ensure he arrived at his regular base in Dubai ready to roll.
“I went back home and got a bit too happy and put on some extra kilos that I didn’t need, so I had to go to Thailand and just kick off the camp and lose some weight,” he said.
“(It was) fat camp. Just getting into that headspace pretty much.”
After a show stopping knockout of Derrick Lewis at UFC 271 in Houston in February, Tuivasa partied hard on his return home.
“When I came home I just got comfortable which is which is understandable, I hadn’t been home for a long time since Covid and I had a lot of work to do with Drink West,” he says of the beer label he founded with brother-in-law and fellow fighter Tyson Pedro that now boasts Panthers half Nathan Cleary as a part-owner and is an official beer of the UFC.
“And that involved a fair amount of drinking and meetings and meetings and drinking.
“It was obviously great for me. I got to come home and see my family and see my friends and then got to work, so it was a blessing.
“I might have put on a few kilos but I was enjoying myself and good to be home.”
Recharging the batteries back in western Sydney is as important to Tuivasa as fitness training of sparring — both of which he’s also done over the past two months at his regular training base in Dubai as he prepares to face Gane, who suffered the first loss of his professional MMA career to Ngannou in their heavyweight title bout at UFC 270 in January.
“I need that. I’m a Westie at heart and a man of the people,” he said.
“And Dubai is very different from western Sydney. For me to go home and to get in touch with all my people is really important to me and it fills me back up, so it’s something I’ll always need.”
The Tuivasa-Gane bout is the co-headline event at UFC Paris — alongside fellow Aussie Rob Whittaker and Marvin Vettori — and while the man known as “Bam Bam” is accruing more and more knowledge as he looks to extend a five-fight stoppage run, he won’t change too much.
“I feel like I’m getting better at my game but what I do is I knock people out,” he said.
“If I dink ‘em, I sink ‘em.
“I’m Bam Bam, I’m not going to change.
“I feel like my training’s getting better, just my approach to this whole fighting thing — I feel like I’m really finding my feet in the sport.
“I feel good. I’ve trained hard this camp and my focus is on me and I get to go out there and put it on show for the world.”
