Tai 'Bam Bam' Tuivasa's nightmare continues with UFC 305 defeat, Jairzinho Rozenstruik domination

Tai Tuivasa has gone down in the clash of the heavyweight strikers to Jairzinho Rozenstruik by a split decision at UFC 305.

In search of defending his spot and ending his losing streak, Tuivasa joined a list of Australians who had a rocky start to their bouts.

The judges' scorecards ruled in favour of the Surinamese star 29-28, 27-30, 30-27, with the home favourite surprisingly named the winner across all three rounds on one judge's results.

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"Some people are just confused," Dominick Cruz said in commentary of the round two scorecard.

More commonly known as 'Bam Bam', the Aussie failed to land a hammering blow and instead was left getting punched repeatedly as he was kept at length by Rozenstruik.

Rozenstruik took the upper hand in round one, however neither fighter produced much consistency.

"Tai's doing a much better job of setting traps," Cruz said.

"But you can see how beat up Tuivasa is from those jabs."

The 36-year-old kept to a disciplined game plan, firing heavy hits and kicks to control the space of Tuivasa in the third round, with his performance near-perfect.

"I did my best and hurt him a few times," Rozenstruik said after the bout.

"Not to take nothing away from [him], he did a great job. I was honoured to face him."

The victory marks the second straight for the former MMA star as he takes a step closer to entering the top 10 rankings.

However, the heavy loss places Tuivasa in an unfavourable position with five straight defeats this season.