Duncan Pattie is willing to walk through fire in order to get his hand raised this Saturday at Goliath Fight Series 5.
After a successful four shows in the rear-mirror, the Scottish based promotion return this Saturday at the Dunfermline Glen Pavilion. The event is set to host a bucket-load of Scottish talent, looking to make a name for themselves.
Ahead of fight night, we caught up with Duncan Pattie to get his thoughts. Read the full interview below.
Interview With Duncan Pattie
Duncan, you’re days away from returning to MMA competition. How are you feeling physically and mentally?
I know it’s a bit of cliche, but I feel like I’m in a better place physically and especially mentally than I’ve ever been leading up to a fight. The camp has been good. I’ve been working with a new nutritionist at this camp, who has been making sure I’m eating right. Shout out to Yannick Magee! I’ve had loads of support and advice from teammates and coaches, and I really feel like Sunday is going to show how much I’ve evolved as a fighter.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it’s been a few years since we last saw you compete in MMA. Firstly, what’s enticed you back in, and secondly, where have you been?
Yeah, that’s right. My last MMA bout was at On Top back in 2020, right before COVID-19 hit. I had never planned to be away from the sport. It’s been purely circumstantial. COVID put me out of competition altogether for nearly two years. I then had my wedding, which had been rescheduled four times again thanks to Covid. The plan after this was always to go back to MMA. However, the gym I was fighting out of, now named Linktown Boxing Club, had transitioned over to boxing, only going through the route of Boxing Scotland. My head coach had the conversation with me prior to this, and I was his only active fighter at this point, so it was almost inevitable. On Top of that, I found out I was going to be a dad for the first time, and we welcomed my daughter into the world in December last year. Feels like the last few years have been a blur, but earlier this year, I knew I had to get back to training and competing and was welcomed into FuDog MMA, which I now call my home gym under my new head coach, Iain Feenan.
Duncan Pattie on Time Spent Boxing
I know you’ve been boxing in that time away. Was your primary focus to compete between the ropes during that time, and what did you gain from those boxing bouts?
No, the plan was always to come back to MMA. I suppose it was just easier for me at that time, and I got on great with all the lads along at Linktown and have good friendships with a number of them, which probably made it also partly a social thing. I took my first boxing bout on less than 24 hours’ notice after being asked to fill in for no other reason than I wanted a fight! After almost two years out, I said I would fight anyone and stepped up a weight class against a very skilled boxer and unfortunately got beat on points. I then decided to take a boxing fight with a proper camp so I could say I did it and got the stoppage win. Even though it’s a completely different sport, I feel the ring time has made me more confident and composed.
Talking MMA!
With so much time away, have you been still consistently training all areas of martial arts as opposed to just your hands? Where can your friends, family, and teammates expect to see improvements as opposed to your last fight at ON TOP?
To be honest, aside from kickboxing workouts on the heavy bag, a lot of my training was heavily boxing-based for quite a while. However, since joining FuDog, I have been making sure to cover all bases and become a more well-rounded fighter, which I believe I now am. The talent coming out of the gym right now is ridiculous, and I’m training with killers every day, which only helps me get better. My last fight against John was basically just grappling exchanges, and unfortunately for me, he had the better of those. I was a bit bitter after that fight as I thought I could’ve done better, but after a lot of time to think about it, it probably humbled me. I was very inexperienced, put a lot of pressure on myself, and let the occasion get the better of me.
I am not taking anything away from John’s performance, though, as he was the man on the night, so props to him, but the fighter everyone will see on Sunday will be night and day from that fight, and I’m ready to show all the hard work I’ve been putting in behind the scenes.
You’ve suffered a few opponent changes on the lead-up to fight night. How much has that affected your preparation in any way?
It’s not affected it too much, to be totally honest. Originally, we were training for a southpaw with strong grappling, and I believe my new opponent is orthodox, although I don’t know much about his preference to strike or grapple. We have covered all bases in camp, and I have had lots of different sparring partners with different styles to enable me to be prepared wherever the fight goes.
Erys Dillys as an Opponent
Erys Dillys is the man who stands across the cage from you. What do you know about your opponent, if anything, or is it just another face to you?
I know he has had an Ultra MMA bout, and I believe he has also done a boxing one, but other than that, I don’t know much about him. It doesn’t really matter too much to me. I will know soon enough when the cage door shuts, and the fight starts. I will be ready for anything coming my way.
As it will be your return to the cage, can we expect to see a lot of your friends and family in attendance making some noise, and finally, tell them what they can expect from you on fight night?
Yeah, there will be a decent crowd to cheer me on. I’ve always been very lucky with the support from friends and family. They don’t all like watching me in there at the time, but they know it’s what I love, and I can’t thank them enough for that. Want to give a mention to my wife, who without her, none of this would have happened. She has basically been mum and dad to our wee one while I go out to training nearly every night and has been so supportive in helping to get me back to competing. I’m looking forward to showing her all these weeks have been worth it. Everyone who will be in attendance can expect the best version of me to date and will see a composed fighter ready to put on a show. I’ve sacrificed too much this camp to come away with anything less than the W, and I will be making sure that happens.
Duncan Pattie will face Erys Dillys this Saturday. Stay tuned!
