The stars seemed to be aligning for Joe Duffy. Two first round finishes early into his UFC career had signposted the Donegal man as being one to watch in the talent-rich lightweight division.
But his journey took a detour. A loss in his last bout against Dustin Poirier sent Duffy back to the drawing board and, as he prepares to make his return to the Octagon against Mitch Clarke on July 7th, Duffy told Balls.ie that he is ready to put that defeat firmly in his rear view mirror.
Joe Duffy created quite a stir when he made his UFC debut in March of last year. He took less than two minutes to dispatch Jake Lindsey with strikes in his first bout and followed that with a first round submission of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt Ivan Jorge in Glasgow last July.
It was the Donegal man’s fight CV, though, which signposted him to fans as being one to watch.
Six years ago, early in both of their fight careers, Duffy inflicted a quick submission defeat on Conor McGregor and the moniker of being ‘the last man to beat McGregor’ stuck to him like glue.
But this was a tag he never particularly felt comfortable with. Now that Nate Diaz has assumed this mantle, Duffy isn’t upset. He explained:
I think it’s probably a relief for me and a relief for Conor. Neither of us were really interested in that tag. I don’t gain anything out of that. I don’t get no buzz out of that. I’ve got my own ambitions to get to the top. I’m glad to be rid of the tag, that’s for sure. I’d be lying if I said otherwise.
For a while before both of their respective defeats, it seemed that the UFC was attempting to create a scenario for Duffy and McGregor to face off once again. Like McGregor, Duffy was thrust into a main event slot in his home country in just his third appearance under the UFC banner.
The fact that his dance partner was Dustin Poirier, himself a previous opponent of McGregor's, suggested that a confluence may occur where Ireland’s two biggest MMA stars would face off once again with bragging rights, and maybe a title, on the line. A nice, tidy Irish subplot with which to energise the hugely growing market here.
Best laid plans, and all that.
Duffy’s main event slot in Dublin was shelved at the eleventh hour, owing to a mild concussion he suffered in the very last sparring session before he flew to Dublin from his gym, Tristar in Montreal, Canada.
This set of circumstances was particularly difficult to digest, he says.
It was a real sore one to take. There was so much excitement. It was my first main event and, being at home, I had so many people coming down from [Donegal] to come watch it. It was an exciting fight for me so this was definitely a real tough one to take.
Getting the fight rescheduled so quick made the life a little bit easier, so the fact that I knew I could get back to work meant that I knew all the time I spent training wasn’t wasted. But it was definitely a difficult one. Going to the show as well, hearing the fans… I just wish I could have been in there. It was tough.
Despite the massive disappointment, Duffy reserved absolutely no animosity towards the situation and admitted that, although he didn't really like it, pulling him from the card was the right thing to do.
Health comes first. As much as I love fighting and everything else, who knows what could have happened. Something could have gone wrong. That’s why the UFC are there, to make the smart decisions. A fighter is always going to want to fight; it’s what we do. Sometimes we think with our heart rather than with our heads.
He didn’t have to wait long for a new date. The bout was rescheduled and Poirier took home a unanimous decision victory. While Duffy did score some success in the stand-up and is to date the only fighter to go to a decision at lightweight with Poirier, he still sees the defeat as a learning experience and he has worked with his coaches Firas Zahabi and Eric O’Keeffe to refine his game even further.
I took a lot from [the defeat]. I learned a few lessons that maybe I was a little bit too single-minded in the fight and I have made a few adjustments in my training. Slight tweaks, nothing major. Mitch is tough and he’s very durable so I’m obviously working hard on fitness. With a lot of the stuff there, they’re just letting me be creative to work on and play with new techniques.
I’ve been getting a lot of rounds in with Georges St. Pierre and he’s been helping me a lot, giving me little details about stuff that he felt has really benefitted him. I’m really grateful to work with someone of that calibre. What he has accomplished is incredible. He’s run though the division pretty much twice. He’s been out for years now and everyone is still talking about him. It says it all really.
Duffy will be the sole Irish representative on the UFC’s sequence of cards leading up to UFC 200 in July when he takes on Mitch Clarke at UFC Fight Night 90. The fan support his has received since his scrapped Dublin main event, and all the way through the Poirier defeat, has energised the Donegal native far more than anything that happened six years ago.
I definitely noticed a big difference going into the Poirier fight. A lot of fans know who Dustin is and, with the whole Dublin thing, a lot of people were interested in that fight. Even though the fight didn’t go my way, I think I gained a lot of fans.
Joe Duffy’s next destination is set, the first of many stops on his horizon you feel. He’d be the first to tell you, however, that the journey is more important than where you end up.
Joe Duffy faces Mitch Clarke at UFC Fight Night 90 in Las Vegas on July 7th.
