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At the same time he's gotten stopped by old JDS and Gane, both of whom aren't exactly great finishers but managed to exploit Tai's sloppyness to great deal, which I think Sergei should be able to do as well if only due to his athletic gifts.I think Tai might get a bit more leeway just based on reputation. Refs do take that into account.
BB and Hardy are the two most prominent fights where Tai managed to fight through being rocked to score a finish, but these two are on the same boat of not exactly being very polished strikers, so it makes sense they'd make mistakes and put themselves in harm's way as soon as they smelled blood, which Pavlovich isn't too prone to do.
The string of finishes tell one story for Sergei, but back in FN he was no stranger to going the distance against guys he realistically should have finished, so I wouldn't be shocked to see him stick to a gameplan here instead of throwing the kitchen sink.
Basically, I think Tuivasa is utterly fucked in this matchup. Could be wrong, but I think his best case scenario is losing a lopsided decision where he catches Pavlovich once or twice.
This isn't me hyping up Sergei as the next big thing either, it's more me condemning the HW division as a whole for letting a guy as limited as Tuivasa find himself in a high ranking position.