Jake Duncan interview

Summary

Jake Duncan is a fighter training out of Evolve gym in Derry under the tutelage of Jason McCabe, he competes for the first time on his home show Chaos fighting championship We speak about his entry into mma, his preparation for this fight plus much more

Transcript (youtube_captions)

Okay, so I'm here with Jamaican Jake Duncan who's going to be competing this weekend. We're gonna ask you why you have that name as well. Who's going to be competing this weekend that Chaos is going to be a home show. He uh fights out Revolve under Jason McCabe. Um Chaos, as you know, is the longest running Irish MMA promotion. Uh some fantastic nights there. Uh whether it be at the Millennium, the Everglades, or wherever it may be. But thank you very much for joining me. How are you feeling? It's it's fight week. How how's it treating you? Thanks for your time as well. >> H man, feeling good. Swam, all the all the hard work's been done. Now you just rest this week and then we're ready to go for Saturday night. [snorts] >> And how does it feel? Obviously, you're going to be fighting one of the comedies at Chaos. Chaos is a home show. How does it feel to to fight on a home show? Uh I know you you'll get more of them in the future, but how does it feel coming up this weekend, the end of the year, potentially your last fight uh of the year? How does it feel to be competing on Chaos the Home Show? It's it's an honor actually. So it is because I've never actually fought on Chaos before. I've been matched a couple times, but uh the fights never went free. So I'm just I'm really looking forward to fighting and especially in front of a home crowd. [snorts] >> Yeah. No, there's there's not like a Derry crowd. I've been to a couple of chaos. I I'd say yourself as well from from being part of the shows and being part of the team and seeing like your teammates and other people from Derry uh fighting on chaos. I'd say you're delighted now to finally get across like cuz like you said you've had a couple of fights fall out. How frustrating is that when like like that you're looking forward to fighting on your home and then the fight falls out. How frustrating is that for you as a fighter? There's there's actually no home worse. Like you say you're doing a really long training camp, 8 12 weeks or so and then they find out especially on like short notice. It's a it's a real demotivator like 100%. >> Yeah. But you've got to fight now. You're fighting one of the comedies out of MMA court. The two people that I would have came across last year cuz they're only kind of new in the M MMA scene, but they're around in the jiu-jitsu scene. So did you know much about him coming into the fight? Have you done a lot of research or do you leave that kind of to to Jason and you just concentrate on what you need to do and improving yourself or or do you like to look into the fighter? >> I do like to like or look under the fighter like I already know who the cure modes are. Like see whenever I first started they were the big names and jiujitsu and know everybody was talking about them. So I think it's a big test for me and uh I'm definitely not discrediting Sean like he's a great grappler but uh I'm just looking forward to the fight now. Yeah. [snorts] >> Yeah. And with it being fight week, obviously you're going in. Do you cut much weight to to get down to your weight? I don't I it doesn't look like you'd have to, but I you never know. Like do you cut much weight or do you just concentrate on kind of improving your skills and getting into the cage or or are you doing big weight cuts now or is it just a small weight cut coming into the fight? >> I'm not really cutting too much with at the minute. Like my previous fights, I was like I was cutting it a bit tight, but uh Oh, sorry. >> Oh, yeah. >> My phone went I've really this one I've really been tippering towards like more training and just getting better. Like uh I'm cutting about 4 kilo this time. So, it's a it's a smooth enough cut for me either. >> And when do you start that? Do you start that at the like is that just 4 kilos coming into fight week or is that over the whole kind of fight camp? >> That's just in fight week. So it is so usually I'd be sitting around 65 kilo and then I would taper it down towards 61 within the week of the fight and then start me load then and I have minimal to do then the sauna. >> Yeah, know 100%. But to get to kind of where you are now, you had to start at some stage. So talk to us about why you started and where you started. Uh what what led you to starting MMA in particular? >> I just I've always watched the sport and uh really it was my cousin that started down in uh Evolve first and it just it just made me motivated and want to train down there more like so that's where I started. I started about 3 and a half years ago now. So and I've never really looked back. I've just been focus training 100% the whole way. Like I don't work or anything. So this is what I'm this is what I do with my life like >> and what was it like going through the doors for the first time? Had you done combat sports before or was this your first introduction going into evolve? >> I did we bits and pieces here and there like I used to do kickboxing for a couple months but nothing really nothing really long but uh it was definitely scary the first time going in cuz you don't know really what to expect like how you the people getting ticky how hard they going sparring and all who should I stay away from that sort of type of thing. Yeah, especially as a young kid going in uh cuz you people assume MMA gyms or combat sports gyms to be all kind of big meat heads just [ __ ] beating the [ __ ] which is complete opposite of what it actually it is when you get there. It's probably one of the most welcoming places that you can actually walk into in my opinion. But once you kind of went in and you started training, did you know you wanted to compete or were you just doing it just to see how it goes and and competing came after? Or did you go in once you started? Did you have the intention of competing as an MMA fighter? >> I've always had the intention of fighting. Like I I that's why I joined in the first place. I wanted to fight. Like I was just so interested by the sport and then like having my coaches John and Jason and all they're very supportive this like. Uh, it's a great push to be. >> Yeah. And talk to us about Evolve and Jason. Jason's someone I have massive respect for. He's always done a lot for me since I started and I've always tried to do my best to cover cover chaos. And talk to us about what Jason means to you as a coach and as a mentor coming through this period of your uh, career so far. >> Uh, Jason's a great person. So is he showed me literally everything I know. Like you know what I mean? He puts a lot of time into his fighters. if you're going to training and putting the effort in, he'll put the effort back, you >> Yeah. No, he he's a good guy and I've been quite impressed with a lot of your fights there recently. There's a couple of quick finishes. You're very good on the ground. Obviously, Carmon is very good on the ground as well, but are you do you think this will be a fight that'll end up on the ground or would you want to keep it on the feet? He might surprise us and might want to keep it on the feet as well. You obviously have a game plan going in, but where do you see this fight taking place? Uh well the main goal is to keep it on the feet like because I know he's a very very dangerous grappler so but I'm more than prepared for it to go on the ground as well like you know what I mean like I I've tippered a lot of my training towards that not just for this fight but for our fights as well. >> Yeah and like we said you're very good on the ground as well cuz I watched I think it was 51 seconds or something. You you you dispose of your opponent very quickly. Um you've been very impressed up to this stage. Obviously you've got this fight. Do you have anything else? You're not looking past your opponent, but do you have anything else booked for the year, or will this kind of see out your year of uh competing? >> This will probably be my last fight of the year now, and then I'll probably take a a week or two break just over Christmas and stuff, spend time with me, and then uh the new year, I want to be stripped back in there. And with the amount of shows that we have, how does that make you feel as a fighter that like this Cage Conflict, Clan Wars, uh Chaos, uh Y, uh Wrath, Gladiator, there's so many. I want to say there's about 10 of them now. How does it feel for you as a fighter to have that many options? Cuz like you said, you've had fights fall out before coming up leading up to Chaos that like just say if a fight fell out, there's usually a show within a week or two weeks. How does that make you feel as a fighter that we have this many options at the minute in the country? I think it's unbelievable to be honest. Like there's so much opportunity in Ireland especially for amateurs to build up our ranks and get better and like that's amateur is all about learning. Do you know what I mean? Preparing for professional like so I think it's unbelievable. [snorts] >> Yeah. I I think there's some fantastic shows out there and like that there's like there's chaos and then ra a week apart and the two cars have really really good fights. It just shows what you think of the depth of the talent within the country because obviously to have two shows one week after another with the the level of fights. We must have an abundance of talent I feel we do. What do you feel about the talent on this island at the minute? Because like we're in the UFC, PFL, Octagon, every What do you feel about the talent we have and then your prospects for the future with these guys paving the way to go to different organizations? H it's madness the talent in Ireland like especially even like the lighter divisions at the minute especially Flywood like it's a very very stack division and you seen yourself like go on the the graph cars and all there's very high level [ __ ] fights for uh excuse my language there sorry but >> you're right >> but uh there's so many good fighters in this country like and that's what I want to do I want to fight the best people like that's why I think I'm taking a step up in competition fighting Sean but [snorts] uh eh The level of talent is unbelievable like >> yeah I think flyweight and bantamweight especially in this country we've got some really really good guys Jar Harris is one that springs to mind Jared Burns who unfortunately fought one of the best probably one of the best flyweights in the world right now so that there's no shame to losing like Jared Burns only started the beginner's course what two and a half years ago >> it just shows the level of rises and then like there's so many good promotions in Europe octagons one that's after it's been around but like man when you look at what they do they actually sell out like 20 30,000 stages that's me >> fantastic >> when you think about it um but there is so many options to go forward after that but your nickname every time people were tagging me or tagging you in some of my posts they were saying Jamaican Jake Duncan are you comfortable talking about where that name has come from >> yeah yeah yeah it all really originated right so my grand is actually Jamaican believe it or not. >> Okay. >> And uh it sort of became a joke because I was doing a fight on like a Kwan show and uh they took a they took me a fight photo and I was like the whitest person you've ever seen in your life. So Jason just thought it'd be hilarious. He called me Jamaican Jake. So it's a there's a lot of like jokes to it. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. [laughter] >> But but you go with it. It's unique. It's original. I don't know anyone anyone that has it. Um >> but look, it is what it is. It's going to be a very good show this weekend. I'm going to be commentating on your fight again. So, with that will be another pleasure as well. I'm looking forward to being part of the show at Chaos. It's a fantastic show. But I'm going to let you go. Is there anything you want to say before you go or anyone you want to shout out? Thank you once again for your time so close to the fight and best of skills. So, if you want to shout out anyone or thank say anything, now is the time. >> Uh, can I just like to shout out my coaches Jason Markver as well. He helps me with a lot of stuff. Bike stuff. He helps me. He's helped me with like my water loading and all like tell just keep me right checking on me every day. My cousins [snorts] killing work and uh me my me my me my me my me my me my me my me my me my me my me my me my me my m man of course. >> Yeah. No cuz if it wasn't for their supporting none of this would be possible as well. So yeah it's going to be a fantastic night. It's going to be fantastic show. I want to wish you best of skill going into the weekend and I can't wait to call another one of your fights. It's been an absolute pleasure Jake. Thank you so much. >> Pleasure is mine. Thank you.