The second fight of the night at UFC 314 saw middleweights Tresean Gore and Marco Tulio square off early. Gore, whose career with the promotion had been repeatedly interrupted by injuries, was riding a two fight win streak that saw him finish Josh Fremd in 2022 and Antonio Trocoli, last November.
Tulio, a two-time Contender Series vet, was coming off his UFC debut in January, a first-round thrashing of Ihor Potieria.
When the action got started it was Tulio who struck first, throwing out a few leg strikes while Gore struggled to find the target. Gore was able to land, but had to continue wadding forward, hands high, into stinging jabs. A couple minutes into the round and Tulio began to really open up landing leg strikes at will. Gore cracked Tulio with hook that flashed Tulio and dropped him momentarily. Tulio quickly scrambled to his feet and the pace continued. With a couple minutes left in the round, Gore’s face was a mask of blood from Marco’s jab. Marco continued to step on the gas tagging both the body and head of Gore. With under a minute left Tulio dropped Gore and landed some mean ground and pound. Gore managed to return to his feet momentarily, stunning his opponent with a blind overhand. The end of the round saw Gore retreating against the fence narrowly evading some flashy attacks.
The second round saw Tulio go right back to the well landing kicks to the leg and body before landing upstairs with jabs. Gore continued to move forward with his hands high but ate some more beautiful bodywork. Tresean kept moving forward looking to get something going but Tulio’s left hand continued to snap Gore’s head back. Tulio thru a low teep that hit Gore in the cup and momentarily paused the action. Looking anxious to get going again, Gore adamantly signaled he was ready again after a brief break.
When the action resumed, and Tulio went right back to thudding and effective leg kicks. Marco was putting on a clinic- landing virtually everything, especially to the body, as Gore began to wilt. Mid way thru the round, Tulio suddenly changed the script and went high with a kick surprising and dropping Gore. Tulio sprang on Gore unloading ground and pound. The fight looked moments from being stopped. Gore miraculously escaped but wasn’t fully recovered, looking out on his feet.
Tulio leapt in missing with a flying knee but closed the distance- before landing a perfect straight punch crumpling Tresean. the referee steeped in and signaled the end of the fight.
In the post-fight octagon interview Marco revealed that he had broken his hand during the fight. Tulio went on to reveal that he broke his hand in the first round but continued to chase the finish. Tulio would go on to call out Marvin Vettori for his next opponent in the cage, looking forward to his next war.
Official Result: Marco Tulio def. Tresean Gore by TKO, Round 2, 3:16
