Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 43 marks a huge day for the career of Baltimore’s “Top Gun” Tucker Lutz. Coming from an unheralded gym in Maryland’s Ground Control Owings Mills, Lutz, 28, looks to improve upon his record (12-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) with a bounce-back win after a defeat against Pat Sabatini in November 2021.

Funny enough, Lutz has never watched the movie “Top Gun,” but he plans to make sure everyone watches him with a stoppage win this weekend. Lutz said on the “Behind the Cage Door” podcast that he is “hyper-focused on getting him out of there; it’s been a while since I’ve had a finish which is bothersome to me”.

The key to Lutz’s success, he says, is his camp at Ground Control. Being at the gym for almost a decade now, he says there are many benefits to training there, one of which is the up-and-coming talent that is hungry. In addition to that, Lutz says that he can “cater his camp around certain aspects.”

For Lutz, he got outwrestled against Sabatini in his last fight, and moving into this camp, he was able to take his time to evaluate the performance and looked at his approach to fighting. In the time off, Lutz learned and reflected. 

“I’ve grown tremendously, so much this past year,” Lutz said. “I had to reevaluate a lot of the ways I had to approach fighting. … I had to focus on the mental side of the game, becoming a student of the game. I feel like when I fight come March, it’s going to be a completely new version of me. I think the finish is going to be for the taking”.

Facing Daniel Pineda (27-14 MMA, 4-5 UFC), Lutz has respect for the experienced veteran in his second stint in the UFC. Pineda is an aggressive fighter, but Lutz sees holes in his game. Lutz’s plan is “a swift, clean kill.” For Lutz, in everything he does, he wants to be clean. His catchphrase is “clean work,” and his training camp has been set up to help him achieve exactly that.

Lutz has worked on his grappling both on the mat and against the fence. In addition to that, he has improved upon his kicking game and worked on switching stances. The key for Lutz, he saus, will be to work the body and to make it past Pineda’s first burst. Although the win is the goal, Lutz says “anything other than a finish is a loss” and that will be seen on Saturday.

Despite his respect for his opponent and his “hyper-focused” preparation, Lutz has lofty goals stating that this is the perfect timing for him. 

“My goal is three wins, 3-0 by the end of the year,” Lutz said. 

After recovering from a nagging back injury, he feels stronger than ever and is ready to step into enemy territory at San Antonio’s AT&T Center.

Pineda hails from Texas, being born in Dallas and training in Houston. Nearly 16 years into his professional career, Pineda’s last two fights have not gone the way he had planned. Being finished in one outing and having another fight end early due to an accidental eyepoke, Pineda will certainly look for the hometown advantage to come into play.

Wherever the action goes, Lutz feels this fight can be to his strength. Pineda is an aggressive striker with underrated grappling, which is a crowd-pleasing style. But Lutz has understood that this step-up in competition requires him to have a strong IQ. Reflecting on his last fight he looks “to have confidence in his skillset and not reinvent the wheel.”

All told, Lutz is “hyper-focused” and believes once he implements his gameplan, the fight will fall into place and the preparation is what will carry him. The only thing on his mind is the lifelong goal of searching for gold. In speaking on his motivations, Lutz says, “A world title. The championship is the goal; that is why I got into this sport.”

Staying calm, ignoring the “boos” and executing in the fight against Pineda is Lutz’s next step to achieving that goal.

Check out the full interview in the video above.