Tuivasa and JDS getting bitter on Twitter

Bitter pre-fight squabbles put asses in seats, so fighters accommodate. In the latest example, the affable Tai Tuivasa and the highly, highly affable Junior dos Santos are in a heavyweight verbal feud. The pair fight in the main event of UFC Fight Night 142 on December 2, at Adelaide Entertainment Centre in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

It began when the ever-colorful Tuivasa wrote down his base as “street fighting” rather than boxing, wrestling, or Jiu-Jitsu, and the term was used by UFC announcer Bruce Buffer in his in-Octagon introduction.

Dos Santos was not impressed.

“In his last fight, with Arlovski, when Bruce Buffer was introducing him, he said he represents street fighting,” said dos Santos to Brendan Bradford for Sporting News. “I was watching the fight last night, and saw that and was like ‘what?! That’s not even a martial art.’

“I thought I was fighting against a martial artist, but that’s not the case. I want to know more about this, and one day I’ll ask him. To represent street fighting…that’s just stupid. Who fights in the streets? It’s not even fair. That’s a coward. Street fighting is not a martial art – it doesn’t exist. How can someone represent street fighting – that’s bulls***.”

“Everyone, all the gyms around the world, are fighting against that – against this kind of stupid thing, this coward thing. It doesn’t exist. You’re not a street fighter, you’re a coward. These people who fight in the streets don’t really know how to fight. Come to a real gym, face a real fighter and you’ll get your ass kicked. And if this guy, Tai Tuivasa, is really a street fighter, that’s what he’s going to have – he’s going to have his ass kicked by me on December 2nd in Adelaide.”

“He put in a good performance against Arlovski, but that doesn’t matter – I’m gonna go in there and knock him out. This is my first strategy. Whenever I fight, I’m going for a knockout. And I’m gonna knock this guy out. I know he likes to stand up and bang, so it makes it more special.”

“They’ll be going for their guy, and I like the Aussie fans and their energy for the sport. I appreciate that, but I’ll have to give them some hard tips. Their guy will get his ass kicked on December 2nd. Either way, I’ll be there to celebrate. I’ll be celebrating my win, but if they want, they can join in.”

Tuivasa replied from his training camp at Tiger Muay Thai in Thailand.

“Tell him to go f*** himself,” said the heavyweight, whose real base as all hardcore MMA fans know, is The Shoey.

Tuivasa later stirred things up further on his social network.

Just because of what Bruce Buffer said? As if I’m gonna say I’m a black belt or something,” he scoffed. “Calling someone a coward is a bit shallow from a steroid injecting little muppet like that.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpR4o4UF4NY/?hl=en&taken-by=bambamtuivasa

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpSFnbNFInQ/?hl=en&taken-by=bambamtuivasa

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpSOisMl3gt/?hl=en&taken-by=bambamtuivasa

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpS7OGWlBKf/?hl=en&taken-by=bambamtuivasa

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpVoDPkFjN-/?hl=en&taken-by=bambamtuivasa

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpWFLS6lLCT/?taken-by=bambamtuivasa

Tuivasa’s needling refers to an incident that began publcly on August 18, when dos Santos was pulled from a fight vs. Francis Ngannou at UFC 215, due to a potential doping violation. The flagged test was due to a contaminated supplement, manufactured by the same Brazilian compounding pharmacy that caused Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Marcos Rogerio de Lima to also have tests flagged.

JDS took a six-month suspension, allowing him to fight immediately, as the time to took to investigate was longer than six months.