Newfoundland’s Gavin Tucker says he wants to get off “the hamster wheel” and back on track in his UFC career.
That rerouting may have started last weekend with an impressive showing in what was comeback fight in more than one way for the 34-year-old who is originally from Ship Cove near St. Anthony.
In a featherweight bout that was part of the UFC’s Fight Night in Las Vegas, Tucker defeated Justin Jaynes with a third-round rear-naked choke submission hold.
It was Tucker’s first fight since July of 2019 when he defeated Seung Woo Choi in UFC 240 in Edmonton. Since then, injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic have kept the five-foot-seven, 145-pound Tucker out of the octagon.
The win in Vegas, which saw Tucker share in the Fight of the Night Bonus, has him understandably wanting to take advantage of the momentum it brings, but he knows his health history — he also missed almost two years between September of 2017 and UFC 240 with injuries — means he needs to pace himself, to some degree.
“I’ve tried to rush it back into fights in the past and it turned into a bad thing for me,” he said in his post-fight interview in Vegas. “You end up breaking down.
“I think three fights (a year) is a reasonable amount. I’ve tried to do four and five fights a year and I’d end up missing a year because I had just pushed myself back into the trench.”
There appears to be a desire to get him at least one more fight this year after his win over Jaynes, who had held the advantage early on, felling Tucker with a first-round uppercut and following that up with a guillotine choke,
It seemed like Tucker may have been caught with his pants down — literally — as his shorts nearly came off at the time. However, he survived and took control of the proceedings from that point, out-striking Jaynes (16-5-0) the rest of the way then getting him on the mat in the third round. That’s when Tucker’s jiu-jitsu expertise (he’s a black belt in the Brazilian school of the discipline) helped him gain his 11th win in 12 professional mixed-martial arts (MMA) bouts.
“All the stuff you work through just shows, you know?” Tucker answered when asked about his early trouble against Jaynes. “I’m full of grit. I wasn’t going anywhere through any of those things.
“I got tested on both ends and worked my way through it. When you get tested like that and you come back, it makes you confident in yourself.”
His showing earned him $50,000 as a one-quarter share of the Fight of the Night performance bonus. and it got rave reviews, including from Dan Hiergese writing on mmamania.com.
“(He) has struggled to remain healthy since making his Octagon debut in 2017, but when Tucker is operating at full capacity he’s one of the most promising names outside of the featherweight Top 15,” said Hiergese.
And you can count the Calgary Sun’s Daniel Austin, who covers MMA for Postmedia, among those who want to see Tucker fighting again, sooner than later.
Under the subhead “Heck of a Show” Austin called Tucker’s win the sort of “performance that turns heads, and Canadian fight fans should hope to see Tucker booked for another fight as quickly as possible. He’s a real talent and a tonne of fun to watch.”
Tucker is willing to oblige the call for a follow-up fight in the near future, but perhaps is also thinking about that 22-month layoff after his lone loss. That came in a unanimous decision to Rick Glenn that saw Tucker go the distance despite suffering four broken facial bones.
“I am going to make the attempt — I don’t want to go jinxing it it,” he said. “I am healthy and … I feel completely fine to fight soon, but I’d like to get back on track as soon as possible without putting myself into a place where I fall into old habits and do the same things.
“You have to learn from the mistakes or you are just running the hamster wheel and I don’t want to do that.”
Tucker trains out of Halifax, but the fighter dubbed “The Newfoundland Terror” has always made it a point to list himself as being from Ship Cove, which is pretty much on the tip of the Northern Peninsula. And those playing close attention to his fight in Vegas would have noticed his Newfoundland-themed pink, white and green mouthpiece.
