Terrance McKinney doesn’t waste much time in his UFC fights. But at UFC Saudi Arabia this past Saturday, McKinney and his fellow competitors had extra incentive to get in and out of the arena.
The event was UFC’s second held in Saudi Arabia and its first inside the Anb Arena. Unfortunately for all of the fighters in the locker rooms, the arena had recently received a fresh coat of paint that caused issues for several fighters ahead of their bouts. Luckily for McKinney, he still went out and performed well enough to secure a win, but the effects of the inhaled fumes were undoubtedly noticeable, he said.
“We were in the back huffing paint,” McKinney said Monday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I even felt it, too. This was probably the best cardio I had ever in any fight, I’d been running five miles every other day — and no, I felt it.
“They did try to help us by taking some of the seals off, but like I said, it affected Lucas [Alexander’s] breathing. He had to go to the hospital like two times, and Mike Davis after was feeling it too. He told me a lot of other fighters were feeling it too. We weren’t just the only ones.”
Unlike McKinney, featherweight prospect Lucas Alexander suffered a loss to Bogdan Grad in the second bout of the night. After putting together a solid opening round, Alexander faded in the second frame, succumbing to a knockout loss from elbows and punches on the ground.
McKinney can’t speak to Alexander’s specific reactions to the fresh paint, but knows it affected his lungs.
“I think he just started feeling normal, to be honest,” McKinney said of Alexander. “The wind and the sand there didn’t really help the breathing as well, I felt like.
“It started [in the locker room]. We were in there for a few hours, way before [the event] started.”
Despite anything McKinney dealt with, he’s riding high and feeling great after his first-round knockout win over Damir Hadzovic. It’s been the same story every fight for McKinney, who embodies the kill-or-be-killed mentality with zero fights in his 23-fight career needing the judges’ aid. “T-Wrecks” has only reached a third round once, and the Hadzovic victory was his 15th first-round win (16-7 overall).
McKinney, 30, believes he could fight in March if he had to and called out Scotland’s Chris Duncan after his latest win.
Whenever the all-action lightweight does return, he’ll somehow remain in pursuit of his first UFC bonus.
“I don’t understand it either, but I guess they like to see a war,” McKinney said of never receiving a post-fight UFC bonus. “And I like to make my wins clear because you guys see how the judges be. So I’d rather me be in full control, whether I win my money or lose it. That’s just how I feel.
“As long as I get the full check, there’s no complaints on my end. Especially now that I got a daughter.”
