Tavares ekes out Ultimate Fighter Finale win

Hilo’s Brad Tavares earned a razor-thin unanimous decision victory over Canada’s Elias Theodorou in a middleweight fight on the main card of The Ultimate Fighter Finale 25 on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Tavares (15-5, 10-4 UFC) came back from two early takedowns in the third round to work two submission attempts and control the final moments of the fight to earn the 29-28 nod on all three judges’ scorecards.

“I wish I stuffed more of those takedowns,” Tavares said in a postfight interview. “Ultimately I got the win. I’m stoked.

“Fighting in Vegas, my adopted hometown, means a little bit more and it means that my friends and family from Hawaii and I get to represent for them. Elias was exactly what I thought he’d be, tough. He moved a lot. The one thing that did surprise me is that I’ve never seen him be that wrestling heavy, taking shots, but I was ready for it. The choke in the third wasn’t as close as I wanted it to be, but I think I had him worried. I’m healthy and I’m ready to go whenever the UFC wants.”

The 29-year-old Waiakea graduate has won back-to-back fights for the first time since 2014 and is 3-1 in his last four fights.

Theodorou (14-2, 5-2) outworked Tavares for much of the second round after Tavares landed cleaner shots and more significant strikes to take the opening round.

Theodorou’s only other professional loss was by unanimous decision to Thiago Santos in December 2015.

>> UFC heavyweight Travis Browne, who was born in Kailua, weighed in at 247.5 pounds for his fight against Aleksei Oleinik today in the main event of the preliminary card of UFC 213 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Browne, who will compete in the fourth and final fight of the prelims at approximately 3:20 p.m. Hawaii time on Fox Sports 1, is 18-6-1 overall and 9-6-1 in the UFC after losing his last three fights.

Since a win over Matt Mitrione in January 2016, Browne has lost to former UFC heavyweight champions Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum as well as Derek Lewis in February by second-round TKO.

Oleinik, who weighed in at 241.5 pounds, is 51-10-1 overall, 3-1 in the UFC and ranked No. 14 at heavyweight. Browne is ranked No. 9.