Joe Duffy is moving on from MMA after suffering his third consecutive loss at UFC on ESPN+ 30.
Duffy (16-5 MMA, 4-4 UFC) suffered a first-round submission defeat to Joel Alvarez in their lightweight bout on Saturday’s card, which took place at Flash Forum at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
The defeat marked the third consecutive setback for Duffy, who’s never experienced such a stretch of negative results. He took 16 months off coming into the fight, and it appears the outcome gave him the closure he needed to walk away.
Duffy took to social media just minutes after his loss and announced his retirement (via Instagram):
Thank you all so much for all your messages of support all week. I have been blessed on this journey in MMA and am truly grateful for every experience. I felt great all through camp and even warming up, I believed I was back to my former self then when I went in there it just falls to pieces. I think it’s time to realize that I haven’t got what it takes any more. Congrats to Joel Alvarez and thank you to the UFC for all the opportunities. I’m sorry I didn’t achieve what I set out to achieve for my fans, family, friends and myself but it just wasn’t meant to be. I am officially retiring from MMA competition 👊🏻
Duffy’s career will be best remembered for his 38-second submission of Conor McGregor in Cork City, Ireland, at Cage Warriors 39 in Nov. 2010.
Any ideas of a rematch, however, were dispelled when McGregor’s career hit the stratosphere, winning two weight-class titles and boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr. Duffy, for his part, won four out of his first five UFC fights against lower-level lightweight competition after making his 2015 debut, before entering the three-fight skid which rounded out his career.
