A Cage Warriors veteran with a 5-2 UFC record, Christian Leroy Duncan faced off with Marco Tulio in middleweight action to kick off the UFC Vegas 111 main card.
Saturday’s tilt found Tulio at 2-0 in the UFC through two outings, but he was facing adversity early, cut open during a grinding sequence along the fence early in the opening round. CLD was pressing the action early, forcing Tulio to tie things up. Tulio would fire knees to the thigh of Duncan, but CLD had underhooks and was able to reverse.
Late in the round, Tulio would get Duncan down, but CLD scrambled up and landed a takedown of his own, getting into side control, then mount, then taking the back and finishing the round strong with both hooks in.
Duncan continued to bring the head in round two, catching Tulio with a right hand. CLD himself was showing some damage around one eye, but was still the fresher fighter. Tulio continued to tie things up, struggling with the offense of Christian Leroy Duncan. In control, Tulio fired a knee, then a shoulder strike, but wound up reversed anyway. Duncan re-engaged, and fired an elbow. A spinning back fist missed for CLD. A second one did not! It landed clean, and Tulio was rocked! A left and a right landed, and Tulio slumped forward. One more strike would landed on an already defeated Tulio as CLD claimed victory in Vegas.
That’s three straight wins now for Duncan, who puts his name in the running for a Performance of the Night bonus after winning one last time out.
Official Result: Christian Leroy Duncan def. Marco Tulio by KO (spinning back fist and punches), Round 2, 3:20
