Brad Tavares Denies Being Pulled From TUF 27 Finale

Brad Tavares says he’s still on for “The Ultimate Fighter” 27 Finale.

Last week, UFC president Dana White claimed that Tavares had a broken foot and was forced off the card set for July 6. White noted that Thiago Santos offered to step in, but a decision hadn’t been made. It appears White’s reveal may have jumped the gun.

Speaking to KHON2, Tavares said that he’ll be good to go for his bout against Israel Adesanya:

“As far as I go and it goes, it was never in question. It was a lot of just miscommunication and misinformation between I guess, some officials and some medical personnel, but the fight, it was never , at no point did I say I couldn’t fight or didn’t intend to fight or anything like that. It was just one little thing and it blew up into a whole big thing but yeah, as it stands right now, the fight is on 100 percent.”

MMAFighting reports that Santos is on standby if Tavares ultimately can’t compete during International Fight Week.

Tavares last stepped inside the Octagon back in April. He earned a TKO victory over Krzysztof Jotko. It was Tavares’ first finish since Jan. 2011. The Hawaiian bruiser is riding a four-fight winning streak.

If he does take on Adesanya at less than 100 percent, it may pose significant problems. Adesanya is undefeated as a professional mixed martial artist. Adesanya has a perfect record of 13-0. Before his split nod over Marvin Vettori, Adesanya had finished all of his opponents.

Santos would be no cakewalk for Adesanya. He’s gone 4-1 in his last five outings. Before being knocked out by David Branch, Santos’ four-fight winning streak saw him finish all of his foes. He is the 12th ranked UFC middleweight.