English light heavyweight Tuco Tokkos will make the walk to the octagon for the second time at UFC Tampa on Saturday, December 14, 2024, where he will welcome Navajo Stirling.
Tokkos (10-3) will be looking for his first victory under the UFC banner in Tampa, following appearances with Bellator and on the Road to UFC.
While his native England might invoke images of soccer (sorry, football) or cricket, Tokkos was sporting a Philadelphia Eagles shirt while speaking with Cageside Press recently.
“I’ve got some family in Philly. When I first moved to the states, six, seven years ago I asked them ‘who’s our team man?’ and they said ‘the Eagles,'” Tokkos explained. “I was like ‘cool,’ they’d just won the Super Bowl.”
He might have family in Philadelphia, but it’s Florida and Kill Cliff FC that Tokkos calls home. “I’ve lived in the states for six, seven years like I said and I’ve never fought in Florida. I’ve lived in Florida the whole time. So I’m happy about that, I’m going to drive to the fight, which is a change.”
Tokkos will still spend the night at a hotel, given it’s a three hour drive to Tampa, but that’s still a much nicer fight week than usual. In the meantime, he’s been able to train alongside the likes of Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues, Brendan Allen, Aung La N Sang, and others.
Stirling also trains at a top gym, City Kickboxing, but Tokkos sees a difference between their respective camps.
“To be honest, I know there’s all these great gyms around the world, but for me, and I don’t say this as like some proud American, although I live here, the level here is different,” Tokkos stated. “They’re not getting the best NCAA wrestlers out there. And you saw that when Izzy [Israel Adesanya] got found out. The first guy to shoot a legitimate takedown on him takes him down and chokes him like he’d never done jiu-jitsu in his life.”
“I’m not underestimating him of course, he has this kickboxing pedigree, he has a lot of knockouts, but when I go watch the fights, it’s like prior to the Contender Series fight- if this gets out there, everyone go through his Instagram. His last fight before that, I don’t know how that is even deemed a KO.”
Tokkos noted that Stirling’s opponent immediately prior to DWCS actually tapped out due to strikes, “and that’s a KO and he’s a KO artist.”
Questionable finish aside, Tokkos also questions the level of Stirling’s opposition. “I don’t know who these guys he was fighting are, but yeah. I’m not underestimating the guy, but there’s levels like I said. The guys that I train with- I’m sure the kid’s good, he’s big, he’s long, he just knocked someone out. Anyone can get knocked out in a fight, but there’s no fear there. He’s a bit younger than me.”
“The guys that I train with at my gym, multiple-time All-Americans, champions, MMA champions. It’s like, I don’t really give a f*ck about his gym, you know?”
Watch our full interview with UFC Tampa’s Tuco Tokkos above.
