UFC prospect Christian Leroy Duncan will hope for a decisive finish against Armen Petrosyan after an unfortunate ending to his debut.
Duncan, 27, made his promotional debut at UFC 286 in March but the fight was over in less than two minutes after his opponent Dusko Todorovic suffered a freak leg injury during a grappling exchange. The British prospect, who is back in action against Petrosyan this Saturday in Las Vegas, was frustrated after his UFC debut but is relishing the chance to properly showcase his skills.
"The opportunity was definitely not there, but I took a lot from just being there and experiencing the whole event," Duncan told Mirror Fighting of his UFC debut. "[Dusko] could have come into the fight with an injury that nobody knew of. Watching the fight back, I did attack both of his legs but I don't think it was enough for his leg to go as I saw his tendon completely rupture."
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"It was a short one, but was a lot was taken away even in the two minutes of the fight. Breaking myself down just to improve going forward. Even though the fight didn't end how I wanted, I still took positives from it. What happened, happened, and it's out of my control. Straight away my focus was on the next fight and when I could get back in there again."
Duncan was signed to the UFC in January after capturing the Cage Warriors middleweight title and going unbeaten in six fights. The 27-year-old played basketball at the highest level in the UK before crossing over to MMA. Originally having dreams of becoming an NBA star, Duncan explained how certain aspects from his basketball days carried over to fighting.
"We do tape study on everybody," Duncan added. "When I used to play basketball, we would watch tape of our next matchups and break down the players. That same aspect of dialling in and dissecting is important to MMA and that's been ongoing since my amateur days but now it's even more detailed.
"I think creativity comes to you naturally, for me it goes back to basketball. I used to play around and mess around with the ball to create my own kind of moves. Again, then carried over to MMA. When I was younger I also watched a lot of the Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies, seeing all the mad stuff they were throwing."
