Antonio Trocoli will finally re-enter the octagon this weekend, facing Mansur Abdul-Malik in the preliminary portion of UFC 323 in Las Vegas, but says that being out for 13 months wasn’t an issue when it comes to finances.
The Brazilian fighter made headlines this past June after pocketing $122,000 in a World Series of Poker tournament, and told MMA Fighting he’s earned a total of around $200,000 on poker tables over the year. Trocoli still played poker days before UFC 323, revealing he took the foot off the gas in the gym for a few days in November.
“What happens with poker in Brazil is that the tournaments start late and go through the night,” Trocoli said. “And because they start late, I always had to make an effort to sleep fewer hours, but still push hard at the gym with those terror, panic workouts, going hard 15 minutes, but focusing more on the cards because that’s money, and the bills don’t lie. When you reach the final table you’re making money, so I’m excited about this transition. I’ve been playing well, winning well.”
Making $200,000 in poker in 2025 means “way more than I made in my entire MMA career”, he said, but that’s because Trocoli is still early in his UFC career. Trocoli went 0-2 so far in the UFC and hopes that his UFC 323 bout represents the turnaround when it comes to his fighting life.
“I consider myself a poker player who fights MMA,” Trocoli laughed. “But I’m still an MMA fighter who plays poker because of my priorities — that’s my plan A. But today, like I told you last time, poker has been more profitable. It’s not even that fighting pays badly, it’s because I spent a long time without fighting because of an injury. That’s why I got into poker and dedicated myself more to studying, because I had a spine injury. Whether I like it or not, from this past year until now I made more money playing. Now I’m planning to come back, put on a good fight on a good card, a good opportunity Tiki [Ghosn] and Dana White gave me. I know it’s a tough fight, a difficult fight, but I’m not the kind of guy to run away from tough fights, you know?”
Trocoli lost a last-minute fight with Shara Magomedov in June and then tapped against Tresean Gore less than five months later, and he wasn’t happy with either bout.
“I had that fight with Shara where I got tired,” Trocoli said. “I spent basically two days traveling, drinking water and cutting weight on the plane. I didn’t have a good fight. People say it was a good fight and all, but I don’t think so. The second fight for me was a disaster. It was crap, a strategic mistake. I could’ve kept him at distance, he took me down, I got up and reversed him completely wrong. I got into that mindset of ‘oh, I’m gonna take him down too so it’s even.’ I put my head right where I trained not to put it the entire camp, and yeah, it sucked.”
Despite the bad run so far in the UFC, Trocoli guarantees he doesn’t feel “under any pressure about anything” regarding a potential release from the promotion with another setback.
“Right now I just want to live and be happy, you know?” Trocoli said. “Whatever God brings me is what’s best for me. I just have to be grateful. We think things are bad, but they’re good in the end, it’s just how we look at them. We’re always chasing a path, but we’re actually living a process — and sometimes we find our purpose. Sometimes my purpose wasn’t this, it’s something else. And until you find your purpose, you live in the promise.”
Abdul-Malik is the biggest favorite on the UFC 323 card, walking to the cage with an undefeated record of 8-0-1 with octagon finishes over Dusko Todorovic and Nick Klein. Trocoli calls him “a good, complete athlete overall,” but sees mistakes made in the striking area.
“From what I see, he’s very explosive,” Trocoli said. “But I feel like he doesn’t find his distance well. In his last fights he was kind of punching air a lot. When he can’t find his rhythm, he comes in desperate.”
