EDMONTON — After a lopsided beatdown that made UFC history as the only fight to receive a 30-24 scorecard, Gavin Tucker is moving on.
The referee who oversaw Tucker’s loss to Rick Glenn at UFC 215, Kyle Cardinal. made more headlines than the fight itself. Tucker, for his part, said the guy who walked into the octagon back then isn’t the one who will show up at UFC 240.
He’s also let go of what happened that night.
“There was three of us in there – one of us had the opportunity to stop the fight, and he didn’t get it done,” Tucker told MMA Junkie in advance of a bout against Seungwoo Choi on Saturday’s fight card at Rogers Place. “The other two didn’t think it was fit to be stopped, so we kept fighting.”
UFC President Dana White opined that the referee “needs his ass whooped” after the bloody affair. Final scorecards were 30-24, 30-25 and, bizarrely, 29-27. Tucker never wavered in his desire to compete.
“My job is to fight,” he said. “I don’t (expletive) know who’s stopping what. But that fight is so out of my mind, I’m not even that person anymore. When I look back on it, I don’t blame anyone. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. We’re dogs. It happens with dogs now and again.”
Tucker said it’s been a rough road over the last two years as he’s bounced around the world training, visiting Amsterdam, Montreal and Las Vegas. He contemplated a move down to bantamweight and was forced to withdraw from his previous scheduled bout.
It’s been 22 months since Tucker has fought. He’s dealt with a litany of injuries, but he never gave up hope that he would return to the octagon and find success.
“This time, I’m going to let it be more about the victory than impressive finishes or being a character that people said I was,” he said.
To hear more from Tucker, check out the video above.
For more on UFC 240, check out the UFC schedule.
