UFC Vegas 59 Fighter to Watch: Terrance McKinney

Explosive prospect returns to action, eager to start moving forward in the lightweight division once again

Name: Terrance McKinney
Nickname: T. Wrecks
Record: 12-4 overall; 12-1 UFC
Division: Lightweight
Team: WarriorsCamp MMA
Opponent: Erick Gonzalez (14-6 overall, 0-1 UFC)

Terrance McKinney makes his second appearance in this space this year, coming off a first-round stoppage loss to Drew Dober and looking to get back into the win column with a victory over Erick Gonzalez on Saturday.

Here’s what I wrote about “T. Wrecks” ahead of his quick turnaround fight against Dober earlier this year when he first appeared in the Fighter to Watch spotlight:

I love this fight for the surging 27-year-old — not because I think he’s going to steamroll Dober or anything like that, but because it is the kind of “find out where you fit in” test he needs at this point of his development.

He showed two Saturdays ago that he’s better than the “still figuring things out” set in the lower half of the division, and now he’s skipping a couple groups in the 155-pound ecosystem to step in with a game, experienced, dangerous veteran like Dober, who has lost two straight and is sure to want no part of suffering a third straight loss, not that anyone ever welcomes a defeat.

Dober spent the last couple years working as a measuring stick for various 155-pound talents, getting the better of Haqparast and Hernandez in 2020 to climb into the Top 15 before falling to Makhachev and Brad Riddell to slip out of the rankings. But the 33-year-old Elevation Fight Team member is an established figure in the lightweight division — a benchmark fighter that only a certain caliber of competitor tends to get the better of as of late — and a major step up in competition for the talented, but still growing McKinney.

That fight, which took place at UFC Vegas 50, was absolute chaos. Here were my thoughts following the contest:

Drew Dober and Terrance McKinney engaged in the round of the year on Saturday, with McKinney putting the veteran on skates early, only to have Dober storm back and secure the finish with a little under two minutes remaining in the round.

This was a wild three minutes and change where it seemed like McKinney was going to finish the Nebraska native early. He stung Dober with a pair of stepping knees and clean left hands, but after getting him hurt, McKinney struggled to pick his shots and find one that could finishing things, allowing Dober time to recover. He cut McKinney with an elbow from the bottom, knocking his mouthguard of out of his mouth, and once they were back on their feet, Dober dropped the youngster with a knee to the head in the clinch. As McKinney hit the deck, Dober followed, pounding out the finish.

Two things stand out about this fight for me:

1. This is further evidence of how much talent there is in the lightweight division and how difficult it is to find consistent success in the division, and

2. McKinney will benefit from this setback

Dober is a dangerous, game veteran living on the fringes of the Top 15, and he reminded everyone of that by snapping his two-fight slide in memorable fashion on Saturday.

Now add in that we just saw yet another example of what makes Drew Dober such an invaluable member of the lightweight ecosystem on Saturday and you see why I was so excited about the fight initially and didn’t feel like McKinney really lost any ground as a result of coming up short.

I don’t think this sport is strictly “win or learn” as the title of John Kavanagh’s book suggests, but for emerging talents like the 27-year-old McKinney, a fight like the one he had against Dober earlier in the year is absolutely a learning opportunity, and one that could start paying dividends as early as this weekend.

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McKinney is a gigantic bundle of upside and athleticism, but someone that is still figuring out how to deploy his abundant skills and strengths best inside the Octagon.

The fight with Dober showed that in spades, as he came out guns blazing and put the veteran on the deck, but didn’t have the poise and presence to take full advantage and get him out of there, ultimately making several mistakes that led to his getting finished before the first round expired.

He clearly has some pop when it comes to striking and we’ve seen little glimpses of his grappling skills, primarily in his win over Fares Ziam. I’ve been told by both McKinney and Michael Chiesa, who is both his former high school wrestling coach and a former training partner, that he’s strongest on the canvas, but right now, that feels like an advantage he’s only able to exploit against weaker grapplers and when he’s not red-lining trying to find a finish.

McKinney profiles as one of those athletes that really needs to learn that just because you can throw 100mph doesn’t mean you have to throw 100mph every single time. In fact, you’re better off to save that heat for specific occasions, and really make hay working the corners and catching guys with your off-speed and breaking stuff.

It’s the thing Trevor Wittman said to Justin Gaethje in the corner during his fight with Tony Ferguson — “Take 10 percent off and you’ll finish him!”

It sounds antithetical — “I haven’t been able to finish him even though I’ve blasted him with a bunch of full-power shots, but if I dial it back, I’m going to put him down?” — but it’s the same as the whole “position before submission” adage when it comes to the grappling arts, and basically what everyone means when they say, “Precision beats power.”

Once McKinney figures out how to take full advantage of those moments when he has opponents hurt, but may not have a clear, immediate path to a finish, he’s going to take a massive leap forward because the skills are there. Right now, all that’s missing are the experience and understanding of how to best deploy them.

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Saturday’s fight with Gonzalez is a favourable pairing for the Spokane, Washington-based lightweight — a meeting with a UFC sophomore coming off a second-round stoppage loss in his debut, and a guy who has lost to the best competition he’s faced throughout his career.

In theory, it’s a perfect opportunity for McKinney to put into practice some of the things I’ve talked about above and that he’s hopefully learned from the Dober fight, though I’m not actually sure he’s wired that way.

I’ve talked in this space and discussed with Harry and the rest of the Severe MMA boys on the preview shows how beneficial it is at times for young talents to just work to gain experience — how Ian Garry acknowledging that he’s got a long way to go before he’s ready to challenge for welterweight gold is a positive, and appreciated that he’s used his last two outings to collect 30 valuable minutes inside the Octagon — and I think that is what McKinney should do here.

He should be the better man on Saturday, but that doesn’t mean he has to go out there and blow through Gonzalez in a flash. That’d be great for the highlight reel and his hype index, but it doesn’t benefit him as much long term as trying out some of the things he’s been working on in the gym these last few months against live competition.

McKinney hasn’t been out of the first round since his loss to Sean Woodson on Season 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series and has only been to the third round once in his career.

At some point, he needs to know what it feels like to compete in the second and third rounds, how to mete out his energy so that he’s not exhausted when things don’t end early, and how his body is going to respond when he can’t finish early and has to navigate some adverse situations. I’m not saying he should actively avoid finishing opportunities or sit back in any way on Saturday, but just as we’ve seen Garry work on things in fights with Darian Weeks and Gabriel Green, this is an opportunity for McKinney to do the same, if he’s so inclined.

Because here’s the thing: the 27-year-old has championship aspirations and an abundance of talent, so at some point, he’s going to have to go through a three-round battle and a five-round war or two in order to reach those heights, and it’s much better to start figuring those things out now when the stakes aren’t as high and the opposition isn’t as dangerous.