UFC Vegas 108's Chris Duncan credits teammate Dustin Poirier in rise to gilly goose royalty
A couple of weeks ago, when honoring his legendary teammate Dustin Poirier, I couldn't help but notice one particular sentence in the midst of the plaudits Duncan gave 'The Diamond'.
'I watched you when I was a young kid [in] WEC, you are the guy who then became a teammate,' wrote the 32-year-old Scot on Instagram.
Then came the kicker:
'Then you showed me the famous gilly grip!!!!'
Could it be?
Had Duncan inherited the magical method that made Poirier the de facto leader of the Gilly Goose Gang for the past few years? Granted, the Louisiana poster boy captivated audiences for his attempts of the choke rather than his execution, but according to Duncan, he wasn't just throwing compliments out there willy-nilly.
'When he was getting ready for Benoit Saint-Denis, we were doing a lot of wrestling together,' Duncan told Uncrowned of Poirier.
'I was being used for grappling rounds only, because I'm not a southpaw. Every Saturday he was doing his conditioning circuit, live pads and live grappling rounds. His objective was to keep getting up and a few times he was catching me with that submission. I always thought I had a good guillotine as it was, but I asked, 'What are you doing there?' Because even when I was doing everything right, he was still getting me with it.
'Over time he helped me develop it and he showed me the different things he was doing — and believe it or not, it's won me a lot of money!'
Duncan is no doubt referring to the Performance of the Night bonus he secured with his guillotine victory over Bolaji Oki this past September, which he followed up with another guillotine victory in March over one of the golden boys of the U.K. scene, former Cage Warriors champion Jordan Vucenic.
'I threw him about like an empty tracksuit,' Duncan remembered.
'I try not to badmouth any of my opponents, and I hope this doesn't sound wrong, but I make a lot of sacrifices in every fight camp to travel to American Top Team. I'm training with the best guys in the world, whereas he did his fight camp in [English town] Corby — most people don't know where that is.'
You see, Duncan never got the big promotional backing that Vunenic enjoyed in his pre-UFC career.
The first time I saw him fight, he upset a highly-hyped hometown favorite in Dublin's 3 Arena, silencing the partisan Irish crowd to the point of disbelief at a Bellator show in 2019. It took the Scot minutes to dispose of striking standout Sam Slater that night. He went on to win two more tests under the Bellator banner, but was never afforded the push like others on the now-defunct promotion's European roster.
In a strange way, not being synonymous with the brand like James Gallagher or Fabian Edwards may have helped Duncan contractually when it came to getting a nod for the UFC's Contender Series. Although it took him two bites of the apple before he earned his UFC contract, Duncan now has his feet comfortably under the table as a five-fight veteran.
While it's certainly an escalation in terms of rankings, you get the sense that Duncan is relishing the thought of facing Mateusz Rębecki in the co-main event of this weekend's UFC Vegas 108 card.
He may be the underdog, but the way he sees it, that just gives him a bigger opportunity to win the masses over.
'People are always going to doubt you,' he explained. 'I haven't had any crazy performances — I've had some good ones, but I haven't had a crazy fight in there yet. People probably think I'm just an average fighter, but I'll prove to them that I'm far from average.'
And what are the chances he could make it three guillotine finishes in a row?
'I'm going to try it," Duncan exclaimed. "I think he's going to wrestle, so I should get a chance. It's f***ing embedded into my game. I've got so many ins and so many outs with that submission. It's definitely possible, you'll have to wait and see.'
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