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 out where I can, but I can't change much. It's just not in me."

But taking down Lewis, the UFC's all-time leader in knockouts, won't be easy – especially given "The Black Beast" will be fighting on his own turf.

Tuivasa is ready for some heavy treatment from the Houston native's hometown fans. In fact, he's ready to welcome it, because he knows his own fans from western Sydney would do the exact same if he and Lewis were locking horns in one of Tuivasa's strongholds like Mt Druitt or St Mary's.

"That's fine, I'm going into his territory, it's to be expected. But this is the passing of the torch. They won't disown him, but I reckon they'll jump on my bandwagon afterwards. I'll win the crowd over, don't worry about that.

"My crowd are loyal. I know that. I've got some of the best fans of the business because they're ride or die, a lot of them are housos just like me.

"We're similar, me and Derrick, we have big personalities and we don't care about a lot of the little shit other fighters care about.

"That's all in the person. You can't hate certain people, and if he came to the area he'd get a few boos when he came out for the fight but we'd be fine afterwards when we're sinking piss.

"He's not a dickhead, and people get that."

Tuivasa is the underdog for the hard-hitting match-up, but when two big men meet in the cage and put their hands on each other anything can happen. He isn't focused on the title implications of the fight — he did watch Francis Ngannou beat Cyril Gane for the belt a few weeks ago and wasn't all that impressed.

"It was pretty boring – as a fan, I like to watch people get punched, some exciting shit, I like to see people get knocked out and I like to give the fans what I would like to watch," Tuivasa said.

"I just love fighting, I love the challenge, that you're going in there and trying to take your head off and you get a chance to take his head off first. I love that shit."

But all of that can wait. The only thing Tuivasa is looking forward to after his fight with Lewis is returning to Australia. The fighting pride of western Sydney has been living and training in Abu Dhabi for almost a year due to COVID restrictions, and missed his son's first day of school as a result.

Beyond that, and perhaps a couple of schooners at the Kingswood Hotel, Tuivasa won't be wanting for much once he comes home.

"My son started school last week, had his first day of kindergarten. I was planning to come home for that, but daddy's got to go and work," Tuivasa said.

"First thing on my list is picking him up from school, doing all the dad stuff, I didn't really get that shit when I was a kid.

"He goes to a little private school now, he's a little private school kid, that's something I'm really proud of. That'll be first, then the Kingswood Pub. I might take my son with me, sit him on the stool for a while."

Meanwhile, the rest of the card will continue its distinctly Australian flavour when women's flyweight Casey O'Neill takes on veteran Roxanne Modafferi. 

O'Neill has accumulated three stoppage victories since making her UFC debut last year and is aiming to send Modafferi, who has announced the bout will be her last, into retirement on a down note.

"It's cool to fight someone who's been around for so long, but to be honest that's becoming the narrative of this fight, and the narrative should be how good I am and how well I'm doing," O'Neill said.

"She might be a veteran but I do believe the torch has been passed, I'm well-rounded and tough and she's just tough, and the days of making it in the UFC because you're just tough are over."

O'Neill is nothing if not confident, with the Gold Coast product aiming for a showdown with dominant champion Valentina Shevchenko sooner rather than later.

"I think she has the same confidence as me, when I look at her and I there's a lot of similarities. Nothing shakes her, she never gets too high or too low and that's what I think makes her a dominant champion." O'Neill said. 

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"Everyone's fear beats them before they even fight her. Everybody feels like they've already lost, you can see the fear in their eyes, the aura she's built around herself, that's what makes her so dominant.

"You have to be a goldfish — my coach says you have to forget when bad things happen or good things happen and just move on. All the best have losses, even Valentina, and it never shook them.

"Getting in the cage with anyone wouldn't affect me. We all bleed the same, everyone can be choked out or knocked out, it just depends if it's your night. I'm willing to die in there, and if I do I'll go down swinging."