Gavin Tucker has spoken out for the first time after a tough 22 second knockout loss to Dan Ige at UFC Fight Night 187 on Saturday night.
“Moment of impact,” Tucker wrote on Instagram.
“I don’t know much, but I know for sure we don’t get what we don’t go after. I went after it. But I lunged after it,..and in a straight line.
Small mistakes, big consequences.
“Saturday night I walked onto a well timed right hand and experienced my first KO loss. I’m not gonna hide from it or downplay it. I’m heartbroken. But I can’t change what happened. I can only control how I move forward. Regretfully I didn’t get to show the work or represent the efforts and strides made from this great team. But I’ll create new opportunities and get back to business as soon as things are in order to do so.
“Thanks to the UFC and my opponent for the opportunity. Thanks to this team for the work they do, and to Everyone for the support and messages. My main goal for these next weeks of adjustment is to show strength in character, acceptance , and response.
” The response will be appropriate. Time to walk in the dark for a while.”
Tucker is no stranger to adversity. After all, in his second fight in the UFC back in 2017, Tucker suffered a broken jaw in two places and two broken orbital bones against Rick Glenn, yet still fought on until the final bell.
It was a controversial loss at the time as many, including a very vocal Dana White, believed that the referee should have stopped the fight much earlier to save Tucker from the beating he endured that night.
Nevertheless, Tucker showed his strength of character by going on to win his next three fights in a row in the UFC leading up to Saturday night’s disappointment, so though it’s a bitter pill to swallow, perhaps this loss will also prove to have been a valuable learning experience.