Chris Duncan went head-on with Terrance McKinney and lived to tell about it.
At UFC 323 on Saturday, Duncan scored a first-round finish with a slick submission of McKinney, one of the fastest finishers
on the roster. It wasn’t easy as he was battered by McKinney early, but weathered the storm to counter with a few power shots of his own and then put McKinney away on the ground.
Watch the anaconda choke finish below.
Duncan didn’t seem to care one bit about McKinney’s reputation for ending fights in the opening round as he welcomed McKinney to trade with him. That almost proved disastrous as McKinney struck early and hard, putting Duncan in danger. However, Duncan never stopped intelligently defending himself and when it was his turn to throw, he didn’t miss.
McKinney was caught by a couple of hard counter punches and then dropped by a Duncan elbow right across the jaw. Duncan followed with a flurry of punches, none of which were knockout blows, but did a considerable amount of damage anyway. Referee Marc Goddard gave McKinney room to work and though “T. Wrecks” managed to briefly recover, he couldn’t avoid Duncan switching to a submission and getting the win 2:30 into Round 1.
That’s now four straight wins for Duncan (15-2), who is emerging as a dark horse contender in the loaded lightweight division.
McKinney (17-8) sees a two-fight win streak snapped, but his streak of fights not going past the midway point of the first round extends to six. He has never gone to the scorecards in his 25-fight career.
