Duffy planned to fight Poirier despite concussion
This past weekend’s ‘UFC Fight Night: Dublin’ was supposed to be headlined by an exciting lightweight matchup between Joseph Duffy and Dustin Poirier.
Several days before fight night, it was announced that Duffy had suffered a concussion in training and would be unable to compete. Norman Parke was offered as a replacement for Duffy, but Dustin Poirier declined. Conor McGregor then offered to fight Poirier once again, but that request went unheard. Ultimately, Louis Smolka vs. Paddy Holohan was promoted from the co-main event to the main event.
This week, following the event, Duffy spoke to SunSport to discuss why he planned to fight Poirier despite his concussion.
“At the time I didn’t think it would be a major issue – it’s not a position I’ve been in before. So we contacted the UFC, made them aware, just in case. We didn’t know what the protocol was with this type of thing, so we contacted them.”
“I did a session on Monday (before the fight), felt good, didn’t feel any after effects, so I got on the plane with every intention of fighting.”
“Even after the whole incident I felt good. I felt like I could fight and that was the whole thing. I came here to fight.”
“I was ready. I’d put 10 hard weeks of work into the camp. I wanted to show the fans that I am one of the Top 10 fighters in the UFC.”
For the sake of the fans, we hope Duffy isn’t sidelined too long, and a fight with Poirier is rebooked for an event soon.
This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM
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