Tai Tuivasa will welcome back Robelis Despaigne to the Octagon when they clash at UFC 331 in Los Angeles on September 19th.

This will surely be the last-chance-saloon for the 33-year-old Tuivasa given that he’s now lost has last seven fights in a row after a unanimous decision defeat to Louie Sutherland back in May.

Earlier in the year Tuivasa had returned from an 18-month hiatus hoping to start a fresh chapter in his career, only to loss out to Tallison Teixeira on the scorecards.

Now Tuivasa will be going up against the 37-year-old Despaigne, who is best known for winning a gold medal in Taekwondo at the 2012 Olympics, before transitioning to MMA in 2022.

Despaigne’s early fights showed promise, with the hulking 6ft 7″ striker managing to finish multiple opponents in just a matter of seconds on the regional scene, leading to him being signed by the UFC in 2024.

And Despaigne lived up to his reputation in his UFC debut by TKO’ing Josh Parisian in just 16 seconds.

However, it soon became apparent that Despaigne’s weakness was his complete lack of a ground game, which led to both Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Austen Lane getting him down and handing him two unanimous decision losses.

That led to Despaigne’s release from the UFC, but he didn’t hang up his gloves, instead turning his attention to Karate Combat, where he’d go on to compiled a perfect 7-0 record over the past two years, including TKO’ing former UFC fighter Sam Alvey late last year.

Despaigne was then handed an opportunity to return to MMA via the MVP: Rousey vs. Carano show on Netflix back in May, where he was able to KO ex-UFC heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos in the 1st round, and so he’s now been given a second chance to impress in the UFC.

Tuivasa vs. Despaigne joins a UFC 331 card that will feature a flyweight title rematch between current champ Joshua Van and ex-kingpin Alexandre Pantoja, while Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan is also expected to feature on the main card.