Kaynan Duarte has revealed that he is planning on making his MMA debut in the not-too-distant future, although he will not be rushing into the sport like many elite grapplers have done in the past. The revelation came in an interview with FloGrappling not long before his main event match against Rodolfo Vieira at the last Who’s Number One event of 2020, a match he would go on to win in a dominating fashion with a rear-naked choke.
It seems that something is in the water at ATOS recently, as one of the main training partners of Duarte, Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa, was first to announce the plans to make his MMA debut in 2021. He backed this up with some footage of him training striking in advance of his foray into the sport, and he was quickly followed by the ATOS head coach and founder, Andre Galvao. Galvao has already had his MMA career and finished it up with a respectable 5-2 record over a decade ago, but he made a statement of intent to return to the sport in the same year, 2021.
Now, Kaynan Duarte hasn’t made anywhere near the same commitment to his MMA debut just yet and he’s explained that he doesn’t want to rush into the sport. Duarte specified that his debut would not be next year and that “I want to get good in boxing and muay thai, I want to get technical and I want to learn very well, so that in two years and a half I can get ready to fight in MMA.”
Duarte also elaborated on his plans for the future and explained that he doesn’t want to stop competing in BJJ just because he’s preparing for an eventual move to MMA. “I’m gonna keep fighting Jiu Jitsu for sure… I don’t want to leave Jiu Jitsu. But I want to get ready now so in two years, if I don’t change my mind, I want to be in MMA for sure.”
