Gavin Tucker can feel the rise of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) featherweight division.
Tucker was called up by the UFC to take on Sam Sicilia this past Sunday night (Feb. 19) at a Fight Night event in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was a stern test, but the “Guv’Nor” passed it with flying colors. Tucker earned a decisive unanimous decision victory.
With the win, Tucker has improved his professional mixed martial arts (MMA) record to 10-0. Tucker is competing in a division that many have wondered about since Conor McGregor’s exit from the weight class. Speaking with Luke Thomas on his SiriusXM radio show, Tucker said the 145-pound division is ready to truly take off:
“It’s funny you mention both Conor and Yair Rodriguez because I think that the UFC took both those guys in two different directions. Conor in his first fight comes into the UFC and he fights (Marcus) Brimage and then his second fight is Max Holloway, which in my humble opinion, as far as technically is quite a jump. And then Yair comes through and I think he’s 7-0 in the UFC and the only guy I remember him fighting is B.J. Penn. They’re building guys in Mexico because they need that market whereas Conor kind of stood on his own.
So, you see a lot of new featherweights come in and it’s interesting to see which route they take. I’m really interested to see what route they take with me. I have a list of names that I would love to fight obviously and I’m still cutting my teeth. I wanna take the next progressive step. Ultimately, you’ve got a generation of fighters that are getting real again. The reset button’s been hit. I’m a fighter, fighters fight. They’re gonna call me with a name and I’m gonna say yes because that’s the type of fighters we have now in the UFC. The featherweight division’s about to grow teeth.”
