UFC 305: Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya continues on the prelims in the heavyweight division between Junior Tafa and Valter Walker. Tafa has now lost two of his three fights in the UFC most recently getting finished in the second round of his last fight meanwhile, Walker suffered his first professional defeat in his UFC debut via unanimous decision his last time out With that said, check out our UFC odds series for our Tafa-Walker prediction and pick.
Junior Tafa (5-2) has had a rough go so far in his UFC career as he has dropped two of his first three fights inside the Octagon. He was most recently finished by Marcos Rogerio de Lima after taking the fight on extremely short notice when his brother Justin Tafa had to withdraw from the fight. Now, with his back against the wall Tafa will take on Valter Walker as he hopes to keep his UFC hopes alive this weekend at UFC 305.
Valter Walker (11-1) did not have a great start to his UFC career as he dropped a unanimous decision to Lukasz Brzeski losing the first fight of his career. The younger brother of UFC light heavyweight competitor Johnny Walker hopes he can find his footing inside the Octagon when he takes on Junior Tafa this weekend at UFC 305.
Here are the UFC 305 Odds, courtesy of DraftKings.
UFC 305 Odds: Junior Tafa-Valter Walker Odds
Junior Tafa: -130
Valter Walker: +110
Over 1.5 rounds: -160
Under 1.5 rounds: +124
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Why Junior Tafa Will Win
Junior Tafa has not had the best of luck in his UFC career thus far. He dropped his highly anticipated debut against former TUF winner Mohammed Usman as he suffered his first professional defeat. Tafa did however get back on track with a blistering knockout of Parker Porter to get his first win inside the Octagon. He then did the unthinkable taking on his toughest competition to date Marcos Rogerio de Lima on just a couple of hour’s notice after his brother Justin Tafa had to withdraw from the bout moments before walking out due to getting sick. He unfortunately was battered with calf kicks and eventually was finished for his second professional loss. Now, Tafa has a chance to right his wrongs in front of his home crowd when he takes on Valter Walker this weekend at UFC 305.
Tafa is a decorated kickboxer before transitioning to MMA like his older brother Justin. While he may take after his older brother, they don’t fight the same in terms of their striker. Junior Tafa is more technical, is a lot faster, and loves to throw crushing calf kicks. Those calf kicks are going to pay dividends very early against the 6’6″ behemoth that is Valter Walker. Walker will undoubtedly have a ton of size on Walker so it will be up to Tafa to smash the lead leg of Walker as he attempts to crash forward and use his quickness to keep his back away from the cage. If he can just keep this fight upright it’s his fight to lose as Walker seemingly doesn’t have much to offer Tafa on the feet at all.
Why Valter Walker Will Win
Valter Walker the younger brother of light heavyweight contender Johnny Walker got his shot in the UFC at 11-0 when he met up with Lukasz Brzeski. While Walker did lose that fight many did believe that Walker did enough to earn the win on the judge’s scorecards. Nonetheless, he lost his first professional bout and will be now looking to avenge his first loss when he steps into hostile territory to take on Junior Tafa this weekend at UFC 305.
Walker is huge much like his brother standing in at 6’6″ with an 81″ reach giving a huge size advantage in this matchup. While Walker doesn’t his size all that well in the striking, he utilizes it inside the cage and in the grappling where he can drag his opponents to the mat and just wear them down. In his UFC debut, he was able to take down Brzeski 4 times and control him for over 7 minutes. That will be his recipe for success as Tafa still has not progressed in his defensive grappling whatsoever. As long as Walker can avoid the heavy strikes from Tafa he has a great chance of getting in the clinch to take Tafa down and control him for the majority of the fight to get his first UFC victory.
Final Junior Tafa-Valter Walker Prediction & Pick
This should be an exciting fight one way or another between these two heavyweight hopefuls. While Walker is going to have a big size advantage in this matchup it’s hard to believe he can take the shots from Tafa to get to where he needs to take this fight. Ultimately, Walker will try to get within range to take this fight to the canvas but Tafa will be chopping down the lead leg of Walker which will hinder his movement from the very beginning of the fight, and from there he lands something big and takes out Walker midway through the fight to get back into the win column.
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Final Junior Tafa-Valter Walker Prediction & Pick: Junior Tafa (-130), Over 1.5 Rounds (-160)
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