Joseph Duffy is a mixed fighter from Ireland who competes in the UFC lightweight division. One of his most famous fights is the 2010 fight against MMA superstar Conor McGregor. Interestingly, it was Duffy who won this confrontation.
Early biography
Joseph Duffy was born in 1988 in the village of Burtonport, located in the Irish province of Ulster. However, then his family moved to Wales, to the town of Ebbu Vale.
As a child, Duffy was a big fan of rugby and even led his school's team in this sport. But over time, another hobby of Joseph came to the fore - martial arts.
He first practiced Taekwondo and then Jiu-Jitsu. Ultimately, in both of these disciplines, he was able to achieve black belts.
At some point, Joseph began to compete in MMA at the amateur level and was able to win more than twenty victories in various competitions.
The beginning of a professional career in MMA
Duffy's first professional mixed martial arts fight took place in March 2008. It was a fight sponsored by Angrrr Management. Duffy managed to knock out his opponent - a fighter named Mick Broster - in the first round. As a result, the duel was stopped by a doctor, and Duffy was declared the winner. He also competed in promotions such as the Spartan Fight Challenge, KnuckleUp MMA and Chaos FC early in his career.
2010 was especially important for Duffy's career. On March 20, 2010, as part of the Spartan Fight Challenge 3, he defeated the rather strong Northern Irish fighter Norman Park.
After that, he began to collaborate with the influential English promotion Cage Warriors. And on November 27, 2010, at Cage Warriors 39: The Uprising, his famous fight with Conor McGregor took place. It ended in just 38 seconds. Duffy was able to grab his opponent by the leg, move the fight to the ground and carry out a choke hold (the so-called triangle). Conor McGregor had to give up.
Several years later, in an interview, Duffy said that in the event of a rematch with McGregor, he would have done away with him just as quickly. However, this battle never took place.
In 2010, Duffy also took part in the fighting reality show "The Ultimate Fighter". However, already at the preliminary selection stage, he lost to Kyle Watson and dropped out of the project.
Then Duffy had three more successful fights under the auspices of the Cage Warriors - against Tom Maguire, Oriol Gasset and Francis Hagney. And that allowed him to enter the fight for the Cage Warriors lightweight title. His rival in this fight was a fighter named Ivan Musardo. Duffy failed to win the championship title - he was defeated. Moreover, in this battle the Irishman broke his arm.
After recovering, Duffy suddenly switched from MMA to boxing. As a professional boxer, he had seven fights over the course of two years and won all of them (and twice by knockout).
Be that as it may, in 2014, the Irishman decided to try his hand at mixed martial arts again. His first fight after a long break took place at Cage Warriors 70. Here Joseph fought with Frenchman Damien Lapilus and confidently defeated him with a rear naked choke.
UFC appearances
By the end of 2014, Duffy had thirteen victories and only one defeat as an MMA fighter. And it is quite natural that the specialists of the largest MMA promotion in the world - UFC drew attention to Duffy's work in the ring. In January 2015, the fighter signed a contract with this organization.
It was originally planned that Brazilian Wagner Roja would become Duffy's first rival in the UFC. However, Roha was injured and at some point was replaced by Jake Lindsay. On March 14, 2015 at UFC 185, Duffy and Lindsay met in the Octagon. Duffy was stronger - he won the fight by TKO.
His next fight took place on July 18, 2015 in Glasgow, Scotland at UFC Fight Night 72. This time his opponent in the octagon was the Brazilian athlete Ivan Jorge. Duffy managed to finish this fight in the first round, beautifully catching the Brazilian in the "triangle". For this victory, the Irish fighter was rewarded with a special bonus with the wording "For the performance of the evening." The bonus amount was $ 50,000. And the authoritative MMA site Junkie recognized the fight between Jorge and Duffy as the fight of the month.
Duffy's first successes in the UFC gave him the opportunity to train at the famous training hall for MMA fighters - Tristar Gym, located in Montreal, Canada. And his coach was Firas Zahabi (this is one of the best specialists in his field, his contribution to the methods of training MMA fighters can hardly be overestimated).
On October 24, 2015, a new fight was to take place with the participation of Duffy - this time against the American Dustin Poirier. However, a few days before the appointed date, it became known that Duffy received a concussion, having missed a blow from a sparring partner in training, and therefore would not be able to enter the octagon. As a result, this fight was postponed and took place only on January 2, 2016. For Duffy, it ended unsuccessfully, Poirier was declared the winner by unanimous decision of the panel of judges.
But in the next fight, he won the victory quite easily - at 25 seconds of the first round, he gave Mitch Clark a choke technique.
On March 18, 2017, at the UFC Fight Night 108 show, Irish fighter Joseph Duffy in the octagon met face to face with an older fighter of Iranian descent Reza Madadi (at the time of the fight he was 38 years old). Duffy cut his opponent's forehead with one lashing blow in the first five minutes, causing profuse bleeding. And although in the next two rounds Madadi continued to resist, the Irishman was objectively stronger. In the end, the judges declared Duffy the winner.
After that, the Irishman had two more fights in the UFC. On November 4, 2017, he fought James Wick. This fight ended in loss. After a significant hiatus, in March 2019, Duffy met in the octagon with Mark Diakesi. Already in the first round, Mark managed to put Joseph on the canvas with an elbow blow. However, the Irishman was able to get up and continue the fight. In the second and third rounds, the advantage was also on the side of Mark. The Irishman was mostly on the defensive and did not show initiative. The result was logical - Diakesi won.
At the moment, Duffy's statistics are as follows: wins - 17, defeats - 4. But these numbers, of course, may still change.
