People talk a lot about where the future stars of the sport of MMA are coming from. Ask an educated fan, and they will likely tell you to look no further than Brazil, and who can blame them really? That said, Canada is in the process of another MMA renaissance that could have it holding another title very soon. One of the players that may find himself at the forefront of this discussion in the very near future is Gavin Tucker.
The humble east coast Canadian boy took some time to speak with us recently, and share his thoughts on his career and the MMA world at large…
How did you get started in MMA/fighting in the first place?
I started off, I guess, doing traditional stuff – tae-kwon-do, judo, things like that; most of which I’ve deemed unpractical in a sense, but I started in traditional stuff. I’ve always been pretty active, so when I came out to Halifax from Newfoundland, I was a musician initially and I was playing in a dinner theatre, not really too much artistic merit to it, and I just kind of found a boxing coach out here and this boxing club just happen to be a house for Titan’s MMA and I was introduced to BJJ and wrestling and thai-boxing and it just kind of took off from there.
Was there a person or fighter that influenced you in MMA?
I grew up in a little place in northern Newfoundland, and I would go up tot he convenience store, which was the only convenience store in my town, and I would pick up a VHS of UFC 12. It had Vitor Belfort on it, and Vitor was Scott Ferrozzo and Vitor put his hands on him and I thought that was pretty amazing. Anyway, that was my first memory, or the first memory I can recall of being attracted to combat sports.
As far as a person goes, my coach here, Peter Martell who runs Titans MMA is definitely the guy who got me on it (MMA). He got me started on a bunch of classes, BJJ. I told him after just a couple of months that I would like to fight… he told me that I would have to show up to class and work really hard. Me, like an excited little puppy, just showed up to class and worked my ass off and just kept on going until I could get a fight. The first one turned out good, I definitely got a good introduction to the sport, and it just kind of took off from there and he just kind of kept me under his wing.
How would you define your style or technique?
It depends on the opponent. I guess everyone is going to answer that, and I guess that is kind of the traditional or cliche answer. When you’re involved in a sport where everyone has something they lean on, you almost want to be the guy that kind of rounds off really well and takes it where they (the opponent) doesn’t like it. For me, I come from a club (which is Titans MMA), which is pretty BJJ dominant as we’re a Renzo Gracie club. I’m a purple belt under Peter and Kevin Taylor, so I think that first and foremost laid a good foundation for me.
All of that said, I think I would say if anything for me, (the most important technique) would be keeping in shape. Peter (Martell) always puts us through the ringer in terms of cardiovascular exercises and calathestics – we don’t ever show up out of shape. So, I always just try to keep fit and in shape, and that’s something I try to lean on and just try to grind people out. I’ve been to Thailand twice and I think that my striking is something that I might lean on more than I have ever have and start to put hands on people – ’cause I haven’t had a chance since I went to Thailand.
What technique is the most important to have really nailed down?
I just think build and athleticism, and that elite level cardio… I think having that elite level of striking and being able to really start it on the feet is super important.
When you do you see yourself fighting next?
I am looking to make a case for the October 4th card. I have massive support coming from my hometown, and my home province of Newfoundland. A lot of people from here are constantly sending tweets, and Facebook status’ are making a lot of noise for me – so, I am definitely going to campaigning for that October 4th card. If I can get that, I would be happy to hold out and wait… so, we’ll see how that kind of play out.
How far away do you think the UFC is?
Well, I think I am pretty close now. Just this past year, I’ve been ranked 7th in the country (Canada) and I am definitely not intimidated by any of those six guys in front of me. In my personal opinion, I am going to go out there and give more than any of those other guys have to give… right now, as far as years and time goes I am ready to get in and see. I’ll never know until I am in there. I feel like I have the confidence to go in there… but, that doesn’t prove it. If the UFC can come here and they can let me showcase what I have and they give me a tough guy, then we’ll go in and figure it out. That’s what it’s about!
With Faber’s recent loss, and being at the age of 35, do you think he’s kind of on his way out of the sport?
It’s hard to say… you, know he’s such a little tank. I guess he’s what we would call at this point “the gatekeeper”, keeps all of the irrelevant fighters out of the top ten, but can’t seem to get a title – so, he’s kind of in a bad place. From what I hear from the last fight, the stoppage was a little early, but still very dominant for Barao. So, I am thinking for someone like Faber, no definitely not (is he on his way out of the sport), you look at his last fights and they’ve all been title fights. All of his losses that I have seen him in have been title losses. It’s good to have a guy like that there, his relevance may change from the guy that is in title contention to the guy who decides who the next guy is to be title contention.
Similar question about Frank Mir, with his recent loss to Overeem, do you think he has much time left in the cage?
Yeah, he’s kind of been hot and cold. He wins some, like that last fight against Nogueria was pretty impressive. Then he kind of got rocked against Barnnett. Frank Mir is one of these old school guys, and you can’t ever count him out, he’s going to sell tickets and he’s going to be a pay-per-view seller and he’s a big name that you can throw out there. Not to sound repetitive, but again maybe he’ll be more of a gate-keeper in the future.
We really want to thank Gavin for taking the time to speak with us. We’ll be following his career closely and know that we’re going to see him on the big stage in no time. Please give him a follow on twitter: @gavintucker6
We want to thank Jay at Fresh Start Entertainment (@jayfreshstart) for continuing to support Last Word on Sports.
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