Dustin Poirier was stuck in an impossible position this week after receiving the news that his opponent Joseph Duffy suffered a concussion in training last weekend and would be unable to fight in their main event bout in Dublin on Saturday. Before that, the co-main event that had Stipe Miocic facing Ben Rothwell and that was also scrapped due to injury. He is a rangy fighter with very slick grappling skills, as he showed in his UFC debut against Josh Sampo, whom he defeated with a first-round rear-naked choke after knocking him down with an uppercut.
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UFC Interim Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor said that he’d step up and face Dustin Poirier in the main event, as did Ross Pearson.
According to Poirier the UFC told him that TUF: The Smashes victor Norman Parke, who was already scheduled to fight on the main card, had offered to fight Poirier on short notice, but he decided against taking him up on it. The rematch with McGregor will assuredly make Poirier and Duffy more than they have ever made in their MMA careers, so based on that alone th stakes are super-high in this fight.
He reserved his sternest words for Joe Duffy, who was forced to withdraw from Saturday night due to a medical suspension. “I felt like shit and I was actually going to pull out of the fight on the day”, Parke said.
ESK: Like Patrick, I’m intrigued to see where Madadi stands after an extended absence that included time behind bars, though I don’t put a ton of stock into his win over Johnson, just because I think “The Menace” is a completely different fighter now than he was then.
Welterweight Nicholas Darby faces off against Darren Till, in the only main card fight that doesn’t feature an Irish fighter. “We both have identical records, we have nearly identical body types, it’s going to be an interesting fight”.
All jokes aside, Smolka is genuinely excited to headline his first UFC show, but being the final fight of the night won’t stop him from treating this matchup as business as usual. “This is the guy I’ve prepared to fight for the last 10 weeks”.
“I talked to Dana (White) as well and he said we might be able to get this fight rescheduled, so I’m hoping for that, maybe in January in Vegas”.
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Duffy-Poirier had the makings of being a pretty sweet fight, so hopefully it gets rebooked soon.
