Tai Tuivasa's clash with Derrick Lewis at UFC 271 will be fighting at its purest

Sometimes, a mixed martial arts event can feel like it's so much more than a fight.

Sometimes it's an expression of both fighters' athletic excellence and their skills as martial artists, or the culmination of a rivalry that has already show both combatants so much about themselves, about each other and about how a fighter can be truly great and what that really means.

But other times, a fight is just two big units throwing as many punches as they can as hard as they can until one of them falls down.

Tai Tuivasa's showdown with Derrick Lewis at UFC 271 is very much the the latter.

If technical excellence is your bag, check out the main event between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker, because Tuivasa-Lewis is raw, uncut hammer-throwing.

Tuivasa has grown a lot as a fighter in recent years, enough to earn four straight knockout wins and earn a clash with a two-time title challenger in Lewis, but he'll quite literally be playing the hits in this one.

«I'm f**ing maturing – maybe not in real life but definitely in the cage,» Tuivasa said.

«I'm younger than him, I'm faster than him and I think I'm a bit more technical. There's definitely going to be some exchanges thrown, I'm not going to go out there and become a f**ing wrestler and neither will he. I just have to use what I'm good at.

»My speed and aggression and my pressure can overwhelm him. I don't look too much into that shit though, a fight is a fight.

«You know me, I'm still the same old boy from western Sydney. This is what I do, I'm just a normal bloke but I get paid to knock people out and drink piss. I love it.

»I have 14 brothers and sisters, all my family still live in Mt Druitt. As a person, I can't change far from that. I do my best for my family and try to help them