“If you’ve never seen Joe Duffy fight, he can do it all,” – Joe Rogan.
For a man with such a quiet demeanour, Joseph Duffy’s talent is absolutely deafening. It is a cliche, but the Donegal native really let his hands do the talking. He is just too respectful to put his opponents down verbally.
When he was signed by the UFC in 2015, Duffy was seen as one of the most well-rounded MMA fighters to ever emerge from Ireland. His attributes and skillset looked like they were handpicked by a player starting out a career mode in a UFC video game.
Ground game – check. A black belt in Japanese jiu-jitsu. BJJ student under John Danaher at the vaunted Tristar gym in Montreal. Eight of his 12 pro wins came via submission.
Stand-up – check. A black belt in taekwondo. Three KOs in pro MMA. A pristine 7-0 pro boxing record.
Profile – check. Being the last man to defeat rising superstar Conor McGregor was an easy sell.
Expectations were high, perhaps, unreasonably so for ‘Irish’ Joe.
And, although he had an admirable stint in the UFC, the lingering question as he retires from the sport is, ‘what could have been if things had gone slightly differently?’
Rocky Road to the Octagon
The one critique you could have about pre-UFC Duffy was that he struggled when the pressure was really on. Although there were always counters to these arguments.
In 2010, he blew his audition for season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter. His first-round rear-naked choke loss to Kyle Watson saw him lose his place in the Ultimate Fighter House.
However, he can be forgiven for not being ready for the big show at the tender age of 21.
His first pro loss looked bad on paper. After amassing a 10-0 record, he fought crafty veteran Ivan Musardo for the vacant Cage Warriors lightweight title. Duffy dominated the Italian underdog for three rounds before being submitted in the fourth.
But, Duffy broke his hand during the fight. The finish came after he slipped while throwing a leg kick. Musardo utilised this opening to secure the rear-naked choke, the upset and the belt.
Duffy is not a man for excuses, but these were excusable losses.
The Call
The lightweight division is the toughest weight class to climb in MMA. It is especially difficult to ascend the ranks of the UFC’s 155 lb division which boasts the most stacked selection of lightweights on the planet.
Initially, Duffy excelled on the big stage. Two first-round finishes – a TKO and a triangle choke submission against Jake Lyndsey and Ivan Jorge respectively – saw him fast-tracked into a homecoming headliner.
Duffy vs Dustin Poirier was set to main event UFC Dublin in 2016. However, a flash concussion in sparring one week before the event saw the bout scrapped.
It was rescheduled a few months later on American soil on the early prelims of UFC 195. The Diamond brutalised Duffy en route to a dominant unanimous decision victory.
Red Panty Night?
On the first leg of the world tour promoting ‘the Money Fight’, Floyd Mayweather proclaimed, ‘Mr Tapout like to quit’. Although the jab was aimed at McGregor’s heart, it also referenced a perceived weakness in the Dubliner’s game that all his adversaries mention – the ground game.
Nate Diaz and Khabib Nurmagomedov’s respective chokes perpetuated the theory, Artemij Sitenkov’s kneebar laid its foundations, but it was Duffy’s arm-triangle that really saw it gather momentum. On 27 November 2010, in Cork’s Neptune Stadium, this supposed chink in the armour was exposed.
That loss seemed to spark a serious change in McGregor. Immediately after, he dropped from lightweight to featherweight. He racked up a 15-fight win streak that culminated in a 13-second annihilation of the great Jose Aldo.
Duffy humbled him, but only briefly. Being bested by Duffy made the chip on his shoulder expand. It made him fight like he had a point to prove.
When Duffy signed to the UFC, a deluge of ‘The Last Man to Beat Conor McGregor’ headlines descended on the internet. While promoting his bout with Poirier, Duffy knew how close he was to securing a huge rematch with ‘The Notorious’.
During media week, he told Ariel Helwani with MMAFighting that the grudge match would sell out Ireland’s largest stadium, an 82,000 capacity Gaelic Games ground in the heart of the capital city.
“Without a doubt, we could sell out Croke Park. it’d be like the Gaelic: Donegal versus Dublin. I feel like by the end of the year people are going to be talking a lot more about that fight – I don’t think 2016, I think 2017.”
This came after McGregor aimed his acerbic tongue at him during an appearance on The MMA Hour.
“How can he say anything about that fight when one year after he quit the sport? He was beaten for the Cage Warriors title and he quit the sport, moved country, changed teams and took up another sport. Then he sees my success, he sees the Irish success and he shaves a shamrock in his head, he starts calling himself “Irish Joe” and tries to capitalise on it and milk it.”
“Joe is not from Dublin, he’s currently in Canada, he’s from London or Wales… I don’t know where the fuck he’s from. He ain’t from here, he ain’t stepped foot in that arena or he ain’t ever trained around these parts.”
The heat was there. The universe needed to will the fight into existence. McGregor kept winning. After the Poirier loss, Duffy needed to start winning again.
Rise and Fall
The UFC eased their way into rebuilding Duffy as a rising contender. Unfortunately, in a talent pool that deep, sharks are inevitable.
After dispatching of Mitch Clarke and Reza Medadi, Duffy was tasked with the challenge of facing James Vick, who was on the cusp of cracking the top 15. The ‘Texecutioner’ stopped him via strikes with one second left in the second round.
His punishment for the loss was facing dangerous English prospect Marc Diakiese, who won by comprehensive decision. Then Joel Alvarez’s first-round guillotine ended Duffy’s MMA career.
At 32, he signs off one of the better Irish UFC careers on a three-fight skid, in his athletic prime. Instead of celebrating his achievements, there is an air of unfulfilled potential about his exit.
In his own words, ‘(he) didn’t achieve what (he) set out to achieve for (his) fans, family, friends and myself, but it just wasn’t meant to be.’
The McGregor fight never came.
And it was right there for the taking.
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