Chris Duncan goes from shepherd to MMA prospect after mother's death
- Published
Chris Duncan remains unbeaten as a pro after seven Bellator fights
Before he started tearing up merry hell in the mixed martial arts cage, Chris Duncan spent four years tending sheep in a tranquil Scottish glen.
Life as a shepherd provided valuable early lessons in focus and self-discipline but it was the sudden death of his mother that provided the drive for a dramatic career change.
In 2014, Duncan was in the final stages of preparing for his first amateur fight when Elaine passed away.
"It was the day of the weigh-in," the 27-year-old tells BBC Scotland. "I still carried on, I believed it was what I was meant to be doing.
"I thought to myself that I need to concentrate on myself because something so valuable to me has just been ripped away from me just like that.
"As much as this might sound cliched, my mum would have loved me to fight."
Swapping a sheep pen in the Perthshire hills for the fight cage looks like a shrewd move for the man nicknamed 'The Problem'.
He last fought in Bellator last month with an impressive knockout victory over Iamik Furtado in Milan.
That takes his professional record to 7-0, with Duncan keen to face his next opponent by the early part of next year.
"I moved into working part-time in construction work and part-time in the gym and slowly I fizzled out the construction work and moved directly into the gym, became a personal trainer, trained and worked hard," he explains.
"I had a couple of amateur fights, never really thought about my career as such being fighting, but just putting myself in the mix.
"I did learn a few things as a shepherd. When I moved to Glen Lyon after agricultural college there was was no mobile signal, no internet, so I was stuck in my own head. It was good to realise I could live on my own and be self-sufficient.
"I still feel I am at the bottom of the MMA ladder. I have got the capability and the potential to go to the top. Definitely people are starting to take note, I am just looking forward to the future.
"There's no point in being the 50% guy. You want to be the guy who puts everything into everything and then you will have no regrets."
