I like Gavin Tucker and after his debut against Sam Sicilia I thought he could have gone on to be a legitimate contender in the division but I feel like his career has unfortunately for him turned out to be very underwhelming.
Like when he initially signed he had some decent hype behind him, was approaching his prime and in his UFC wins he's actually looked good. Unfortunately for him he's had like nearly half a dozen fights cancelled for whatever reason and been at best fighting once a year for his entire UFC stint - 6 fights in 6 in a half years can't do you any good - especially now he's 37. In the lighter weight classes it's generally your speed and reflexes that start to fade first and unfortunately for him, 37 is pretty ancient in 145 and below - there's a reason there's only 3 fighter aged 37+ in the top 30 of 145, let alone the fact that they're generally getting worse not better.
I don't know too much about his opponent so it's not really much in the way of analysis around how he matches up with him - Tucker could maybe win, he is after all a pretty skilled guy but more just a post lamenting the way his career has gone due to inactivity.
He's not the first and won't be the last but it's always interesting when you see fighters who you feel could have done a lot more. You'd imagine it's even more frustrating for them because if some fella the other side of the world who's just watched his fights once each can see it - he and fighters like him going through the same thing will absolutely know it.
