After avoiding McDaniel's Seagal kick, Tavares wants Philippou-Carmont winner

UFC middleweight Brad Tavares isn’t exactly thrilled about his fight with Robert McDaniel at UFC Fight Night 27, but he’ll never complain about a win, even if it’s his fourth straight decision.

“I wasn’t so much disappointed as frustrated with how that last round went,” Tavares told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio).

That was when “The Ultimate Fighter 11? vet Tavares (11-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) began to find his range in the striking department and batter “TUF 17? vet “Bubba” McDaniel (21-7 MMA, 1-1 UFC), who attempted to win the fight on the mat in their main card fight, which aired on FOX Sports 1 and took place at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. 

“In the beginning, I thought [McDaniel] would come out and use his range and do some crazy Steven Seagal kick,” Tavares said. “He threw it a few times, and I didn’t want to rush in and get caught. But after a few times, I saw it in his face, and in his body – he didn’t want to engage, and credit to him, he moved really well laterally.”

The judges were unanimous in awarding Tavares two rounds for across the board 29-28 scores. But the fighter isn’t dwelling on the fact that he had to employ commission officials. He’s already on to another to another topic – fighting the winner of an upcoming bout between Constantinos Philippou (12-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Francis Carmont (21-7 MMA, 5-0 UFC). The middleweights fight Sept. 21 in Toronto at UFC 165, and Tavares said he’ll be waiting. 

“I was thinking maybe since they’re fighting soon, the winner of Philippou and Carmont. In my opinion, I don’t think Carmont deserves that fight with Philippou. I thought he lost his last two fights and got gifted by the judges. [The Tom Lawlor] fight was a little closer. To me, the (Lorenz) Larkin fight was obvious. Larkin obviously won that fight. But I know a lot of people believe Lawlor won that fight, as well.”

Indeed, Carmont, who trains in Montreal with welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, is often the subject of second-guessing among fans and observers who believe judges have been a little too charitable with him on scorecards. Tavares is clearly one of them. 

But the 25-year-old Hawaii native also said that before he received McDaniel as an opponent, he called out Philippou on Twitter and got a positive response. It was at least more positive than the one he got from UFC brass when he took to social media to request a bout with former PRIDE champ Wanderlei Silva. 

“I really wanted to fight Wanderlei (Silva), and that didn’t go through, and they made it clear it wasn’t (going to happen) due to the fact that I’m not a big enough name to fight Wanderlei,” said Tavares. “They didn’t say it in those exact words, but that’s pretty much the feeling that I got. 

“I think the fact that he’s getting up in his career and he wants to stay up at 205, he’s done cutting weight. He’s one of those guys that he doesn’t have to be fighting for a title or title contention, and it will sell. I think they need him to fight these big superfights.”

Another requested fight with former DREAM and Strikeforce champ Gegard Mousasi also fell through, so Tavares is looking for the next best option. He said he’ll be more than happy to fight in December, perhaps at UFC 168, which takes place in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas. 

“I don’t want to wait very long,” he said. “Last time around, I had to bug (UFC matchmaker) Joe (Silva) to get me a fight. And I’m sure everybody does, just because there’s so many fighters. They absorbed Strikeforce; there’s women’s (divisions); there’s [flyweights]. There’s a lot of fights, a lot of fighters, and maybe not enough fights.” 

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 27, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

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