London, England — As a very promising prospect, plenty of eyes were on middleweight Christian Leroy Duncan at UFC 286 on Saturday night.
While Duncan (8-0), a former Cage Warriors champ signed directly to the UFC, came away with the win, the fight did not go how he wanted it to. Rather than a flashy finish or hard-fought decision, opponent Dusko Todorovic fell to injury early in the fight, apparently tearing something in his knee.
“Extremely anticlimactic,” Duncan called the turn of events following the fight, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “I was looking forward to coming in and just putting on a show you could say.”
Duncan was just starting to get comfortable in the fight when “whatever happened, happened with his knee and he just collapsed to the floor,” the middleweight recalled.
“It was a stranger moment, but it’s out of our control. Certain things are out of our control. I’m just glad I got to experience this whole Fight Week with the UFC on such a big card. I hope to get back in here in the very, very near future.”
“I wish him a speedy recovery,” Duncan added. “Shouldn’t happen. That’s not the way anybody wants to go in a fight, win or lose. So I wish him a speedy recovery.”
Moving forward, Duncan feels his next UFC fight will be a second debut of sorts. “It’s not really enough time to get experience, but it’s enough experience to get a feel for another walkout, and the cage itself,” he stated. “Going into my next fight, in my head I’m still 0-0 in the UFC. You could say it’s another debut.”
As for when that might be, ‘CLD’ noted there were rumors of the UFC returning to England over the summer. “If that’s the rumor and it comes to light then yeah, I definitely want to be on that card.”
Watch the full UFC 286 post-fight press scrum with Christian Leroy Duncan above.
