Jon Tuck is preparing to take on Damien Brown this weekend at UFC Fight Night 101, where he expects nothing short of an exciting fight to be taking place.
“I like the matchup,” Tuck said to MMA Junkie. “He’s a good scrapper, I’ve got the scrappy style as well. I always want to fight the best and legends, but I don’t pick and choose who I fight. He’s a tough opponent, but I’ve definitely put in the hard work to make it happen on fight night. I feel great, and definitely you can expect a new level. I feel like everything has been turning around in a new direction for this fight. The team that I’m with has worked really hard to make sure I’m in a good place and to get me to the level where I’m at. I’m not looking to go three rounds; this is going to be an exciting fight with an exciting finish, whether it’s knockout, TKO or submission.”
Tuck was originally set to fight at UFC Fight Night 97, but the event was canceled after headliner BJ Penn suffered an injury, Tuck wasn’t happy the event got canned.
“Two hours into the flight, waking up from a nap, I decided to log on to my WiFi – which is something I don’t usually do during flights,” Tuck said. “And I got a text from one of my good friends. She said she was sorry to hear about the news. I thought that something that happened to somebody, and I started to worry. She sent me a link. I clicked on it, and it said the card was cancelled. It was crazy. I was locked up on the plane. I was really frustrated, claustrophobic and tense, and right away thought about everyone from Guam who was going to Manila to see me fight. I felt sick, honestly. Before that, I was feeling great. It was such a letdown. It was very frustrating. But the good thing was that I could spend some extra time with my family. There were some good parts, but it was also frustrating.”
UFC Fight Night 101 takes place tonight from the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia with Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson headlining.
