LAS VEGAS – Chris Duncan met the media Wednesday ahead of his fight at UFC 323.
Duncan (14-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) takes on Terrance McKinney (17-7 MMA, 7-4 UFC) in a lightweight fight on the preliminary card Saturday at T-Mobile Arena (pay-per-view, ESPN2/FX/Disney+, ESPN+). At media day, Duncan took questions from members of the press corps before his fight.
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Duncan and McKinney have been paired up to fight before. A little more than two years ago, the Scotsman was set to fight McKinney in Las Vegas, but had visa issues and sat out four extra months. When he returned, he suffered the only loss of his UFC tenure when he was tapped out by Manuel Torres in the first round.
But since then, the 32-year-old Duncan has been tearing it up with three straight wins, including two guillotine choke finishes and a pair of bonuses. The fight with McKinney? It’s personal.
“It’s like I got offered it and it never went away. Eventually, we’re going to get the fight and I’m looking forward to putting on a great performance,” Duncan said. “It’s definitely the fight I wanted. To make good fights, you need a good dance partner, and Terrance is that.
“… There’s definitely no bad blood, but there will be bad blood Saturday night, I can tell you that. There are no friends in this game, and I’m sure he knows that. I’m going to go in there and try to kill him on Saturday night. We spoke a little bit over social media years ago when we were first scheduled to fight. He messaged me and said, ‘I’m looking forward to competing against you.’ And I’m thinking to myself, ‘We’re not going to be competing. We’re going to be fighting. Just remember that.”
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When McKinney was set to fight Duncan the first time, he got Brendon Marotte instead on short notice. He finished him in 20 seconds, but was denied a post-fight bonus. After a head-kick knockout loss to Esteban Ribovics, McKinney has back-to-back first-round finishes in 2025.
“Without being disrespectful, I feel he’s pretty one-dimensional in the sense he hasn’t been out of the first round and won,” Duncan said. “If we get into the second and. third, you see with my last performance how hard I can push myself.”
Check out Duncan’s full media day interview in the video above.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 323: Chris Duncan says bad blood will be spilled
