A Tullibody martial artist has fulfilled his life ambition by penning a cope with the UFC – after sealing a memorable comeback victory in Las Vegas this week.
Chris Duncan, initially from Strathyre, seized his alternative within the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The MMA prospect flew to the UFC Apex Centre for his battle with muchAmerican fighter Charlie Campbell on the Dana White Contender Collection – a sequence wherein hopeful fighters compete to attempt to safe a contract with the world’s high MMA promotion.
The 29-year-old, who fights out of the Evo Health club, in Colquhoun Avenue, Stirling, survived an early setback within the bout to knock Campbell out in spectacular trend.
Duncan, nicknamed 'The Downside', weathered an early storm, sustaining quite a few laborious punches and showing to be badly harm within the opening minutes of the primary spherical.
Nonetheless, the scrapper refused to simply accept defeat and fired again with a straight right-hand to the American’s chin, knocking him unconscious.
The spectacular victory was sufficient for the UFC president, Dana White, at hand Duncan the coveted UFC contract for the heroic efficiency.
It was the light-weight’s second look on the Dana White Contender Collection. He was beforehand defeated in October final yr when he was knocked out within the second spherical.
Nonetheless, Duncan’s initially scheduled opponent didn't make the load and he later accepted a brief discover battle towards Viacheslav Borshchev the place he suffered the loss.
Click on right here for extra information and sport from the Stirling space.
The circumstances of his first battle prompted UFC bosses to offer Duncan a second alternative.
Following this week’s bout, a jubilant Duncan spoke at a press gathering the place he stated: “I made a little bit of a large number of it, but it surely’s not about the way you begin, it’s the way you end.
“He was dashing in. I watched some footage of him some time in the past, and when he begins to get his groove, he begins (weaving and bobbing) together with his fingers. I noticed him doing that, and I simply received my head off the centre-line and simply threw my cannon and threw it proper to his chops.
“I bounced his head off the canvas. Placing somebody down like that's by no means good, however I knew that’s what was going to safe me my contract.”
Addressing his earlier disappointment, Duncan added: “That was one of the best factor that ever occurred to me. Once I used to enter fights, I used to enter kill, kill, kill mode. I used to place the blinkers on and go ahead and attempt to knock him out. And that’s not the way in which you go, particularly in MMA, as a result of there are such a lot of methods to win or lose – and I paid for it. I received left-hooked and knocked out.
“I had to return and I had to consider my mindset and the way I gear up for a battle. I used to be gearing up the identical means as after I fought final time in London on a neighborhood present, and I used to be feeling good.
“Now the UFC’s received an issue to fret about.
“They gave me the nickname The Downside for a cause. I’m simply right here to work my means up the ladder and get higher, go and be taught, and luxuriate in being a full-time MMA athlete for the UFC.”
The previous McLaren Excessive Faculty pupil beforehand gave up his job as a shepherd in Glen Lochay, close to Killin, to take up the fight sport full-time. Duncan’s signing with the UFC is the Stirling space’s most up-to-date connection to the organisation.
Now the world’s high preventing promotion, in March 2017 we instructed how the game was born in Cowie.
The brains behind the multi-billion greenback organisation was born and bred within the village 4 miles from Stirling.
TV producer Campbell McLaren (66) co-founded the UFC in 1993. Campbell was born and raised in Cowie earlier than he emigrated to America together with his household aged simply seven. The businessman first brainstormed the concept of a combined martial arts championship whereas working at a pay-per-view firm owned by the music big BMG.
Nonetheless, his journey started in Cowie, the place he was born in 1956.