UFC combatants need to have an ample capacity for overcoming difficulties and this was embodied by Chris Duncan recently. Duncan is coming off of a memorable, come from behind win over Terrance McKinney at UFC 323 from last weekend. But it was in the lead up to the actual fight that showed the Scotsman’s depth of ability to push through adversities.
This was discussed during the post-fight press conference when the victorious lightweight covered several subjects including Duncan’s mention that he had ballooned up over thirty pounds since a tumultuous effort to hit his mark on the scales in a nutritionally sound way. McKinney seemed to rock him with strikes multiple times until a timely elbow from Duncan turned the tides. This eventually lead into getting the fight to the mat to end things with an anaconda choke submission to author his fourth straight victory in a row.
Aspects of being away from his family for a lengthy time period and mentioning some caloric difficulties he had on Saturday that might present issues with him having a quicker turn around bout for the looming UFC card in England set for March 2026, as Duncan said,
“I’ve been out of the country for 30 weeks this year away from my family. I’m not too sure about jumping straight into London. I need to have a long think about it. I’ve not had a lot of time to really get better, like really focusing on technique and improving. I really hurt myself cutting weight this time – not so much the weight cut itself, the cut was easy, one of the smoothest and my team would agree – but with my calories and stuff.”
UFC 323’s Chris Duncan and the post-fight joy of reuniting with his family
Getting into some of the specifics of his caloric situation ahead of UFC 323, Duncan continued,
“I was eating like 1,200 calories some days just to try and catch up because I was a bit behind. I’m great at suffering, I’m great at doing all these things that nobody else will do, but I’m going home and enjoying my time with my family, man. I’ve missed them so much and I can’t wait to see them and give them a cuddle.”
