Tragedy extra motivation as Tafa chasing UFC dream
Brisbane heavyweight Justin Tafa will be fuelled by heartache when he steps into the Octagon against Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC 298 this weekend.
Knocking on the door of a spot in the heavyweight rankings, the 30-year-old isn’t lacking for motivation but has added drive after the tragic death of a young boy in Logan, where Tafa lives, in December.
Tafa joined the rest of his close-knit community in a frantic search for the sevenyear-old, who went missing from his home just a week before Christmas. “I didn’t know him but I’ve got a kid a year younger than that young boy,” Tafa said.
“He went missing from his house. He was autistic, and non-verbal, and when he went missing, a big search went on.
“The whole community was there until midnight, searching, and then everyone was back out at five in the morning, looking around the river near his house.”
After 18 hours of desperate searching, the boy’s family, the community and Tafa’s own worst fears were horribly realised. “Unfortunately, they found his body the next day,”
Tafa said. “I couldn’t sleep for those days, just knowing a young boy was helpless like that.
“My thoughts are always out, and I always try and represent the neighbourhood and the community, but I’ll definitely be thinking of him when I’m out there.”
Out of such a senseless tragedy, Tafa said the most minor moment of positivity was watching the area unite.
“That was the only positive you could try and get out of it,” he said. “Just that the whole community was out there, and to see the love that everyone had. To come together in busy times – and hard times, too – but everyone just dropped everything.”
Community, and his Samoan roots, are at the heart of everything Justin “Bad Man” Tafa does.
Born in Auckland to Samoan parents, he now calls Australia home and proudly represents all three countries when he fights. It’s a tradition taught to him by his grandfather, who, as a boxer in his younger days, became one of the first Samoan fighters to leave the island.
“Back in those days, it was a big deal,” Tafa said. “It wasn’t just plane rides everywhere, sometimes it was catching boats to other countries. He was a proud fighter, he really loved it, and he understood what it meant to fight.”
Having grown up in Samoa, Tafa’s grandfather relocated to Auckland with 14 kids to become a truck driver.
That’s a different kind of pressure to fighting and Tafa said he felt a sense of responsibility to make the most of his talents.
Tafa will use all that history as inspiration and motivation when he takes on 16-fight UFC veteran de Lima.
Unbeaten in his past four fights, Tafa is the underdog but can catapult himself into the top 15 in the division with an impressive win.