Tyler Durden 
Brad Tavares is back in the UFC even if he technically never left.
Following a dominant win over Gerald Meerschaert in April, the 15-year UFC veteran was suddenly removed from the roster after promotion officials confirmed to MMA Fighting that Tavares completed his contract. Generally, the UFC removes fighters from the active roster either when a contract is finished or when the promotion actually releases the athlete from their contract.
In Tavares’ situation, he was out of contract, but only briefly, because he had already engaged in talks with the UFC on a new deal, which has now been completed.
“So, my last fight was the last fight of my previous contract, so that contract expired,” Tavares said on the Still Friends Show podcast. “Funny enough, the UFC, whatever it is, I don’t know if it’s some AI-type shit or department they have—but they are on it because boom, that contract expired, and boom, I was removed from the roster.
“Anyway, I was in the midst of negotiating my new contract, which I did. That’s when all the news came out, and it was funny to me.”
Tavares even reaching the end of his contract was surprising after he’s spent almost the entirety of his career with the UFC.
When his removal from the roster went public, Tavares said he definitely got a lot of messages asking about what happened but he already knew that the situation would resolve itself quickly.
“It’s funny, everybody was reaching out, even people, close friends and family [saying] ‘hey, I saw this’ or whatever and then there’s other people that seen it and were like ‘I don’t like asking him about that’ or whatever,” Tavares said. “Me, the type of guy I am, I was like I’m just going to leave it and not address anything and just let people speculate.”
It all worked out in the end but Tavares admits that even though he’s spent so many years with the UFC, he understood the gamble he was taking by going into his most recent fight with only one bout left on his deal.
Prior to beating Meerschaert by decision, Tavares had suffered back-to-back losses and a third consecutive defeat probably would have spelled the end of his UFC career.
“It’s the chance you take, right?” Tavares said. “For sure, if I had underperformed or lost that fight, 100 percent that would have been my last one. They’d have been like we appreciate you … or maybe they would have just been like kick rocks. That’s the toss up.
“It’s been like that my whole career. That last fight, either the third or fifth fight, depending on the contract, you always want to show up and show out because that’s the one that you’re going to negotiate off of. If you come off a loss on that one, it’s hard to negotiate. At the end of the day, it’s a business. That’s the chance you take.”
In the end, Tavares reached an agreement to re-sign with the UFC and now he’s anxiously awaiting his next assignment with hopes of setting the record for the most wins in the history of the middleweight division. He’s currently tied with Michael Bisping for that honor with 16 wins at 185 pounds.
“UFC has always been great to me,” Tavares said. “They gave me another contract. Now I can go out there and hold the record myself.”
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