There’s little to takeaway from Duffee from Wednesday’s beatdown at the hands of his old training partner, Mir. Still one of the top 10 ranked heavyweights in the UFC, Frank Mir provided the toughest test of Duffee’s career, once which allowed Mir to showcase his ability to stand in the pocket and trade with a younger, more powerful heavyweight. It’s always better to be remembered than forgotten and that just goes to show you the power that Brock Lesnar has. It was Duffee that ended up face first on the canvas 73 seconds into the fight; the result of a Mir left hook.
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Referee John McCarthy stopped the fight at 1:13.
In other words, Mir had nothing to prove at UFC Fight Night 71 opposite a resurgent and powerful Todd Duffee, who had finished all nine of his victories coming into this fight by way of knockout or TKO.
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THOSE TEAMMATES, TOO: In addition to Holm, tonight’s fight card features Jackson-Wink fighters Igor Araujo and Ildemar Alcantara. “I don’t usually do that”.
Frank Mir might be a former two-time UFC heavyweight champion, but he showed Wednesday night that he’s not ready to ride off into the sunset of his career. Duffee now trains out of American Top Team. The 38-year-old PE teacher got a late start to her MMA career, but is making the most of her time left in the sport.
Ferguson landed a huge standing elbow to the head of Thomson, instantly rocking the former Strikeforce champion and putting into survival mode. I’m trying to fight Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos. “I thought you wanted to be an athletic trainer?'” Reneau said. Plus Josh Thomson vs. Tony Ferguson will be.well actually that’ll probably be quite sad as the faded Strikeforce great gets out-wrestled over three rounds by an inferior, yet younger opponent. Then Duffee started to swing wildly and missed badly. She’s smashed so many talented, established fighters that the UFC is starting to look at recycling challengers and fast-tracking opponents that probably aren’t really deserving of title shots at this stage, but represent the best available option.
In the co-main event, Tony Ferguson continued his impressive run against Josh Thomson with a one-sided unanimous decision victory.
Jennifer Mir urged her husband to watch “Blackfish” – and that’s all it took.
Holm (8-0, 1-0 UFC), a highly decorated boxer, makes her second appearance inside the Octagon, coming off a lackluster decision win at UFC 184.
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The excitement level of this card is relatively low, as the fight I most looked forward to was scrapped due to Gilbert Melendez pissing hot.
