Brad Tavares (photo via Twitter / @BradTavares)

By FCF Staff

Israel Adesanya will battle  Brad Tavares on Friday night, and the latter doesn’t believe the middleweight deserves the high profile opportunity.

Adesayna will fight Tavares in the main event of the TUF 27 Finale, which will take place on Friday in Las Vegas. The accomplished kickboxer was been booked for the headliner, after defeating Rob Wilkinson and Marvin Vettori in the Octagon.

In a recent article at UFC.com, Tavares was quoted saying the following, while discussing the booking:

“Now here I am riding another four-fight winning streak, so I’m going to just keep doing what I’ve been doing – doing my thing, believing in myself, believing in my team and my training, getting better every time and going out there and showing it.

“I felt that he doesn’t deserve the fight, but a lot of it is because I wanted another fight,” said Tavares. “I was eyeing a bigger name, somebody who would put me one step closer to a title shot. (Michael) Bisping was the man I wanted, he’s retired now, so props to him, so Adesanya was next in line and I’m not here to pick and choose my fights.”

As this weekend’s action approaches, Tavares is ranked #8 in the UFC’s 185 division, while Adesanya is not positioned in the top 15.