Joseph Duffy, who outclassed Iranian MMA veteran Reza Madadi at UFC Fight Night London on Saturday, sees no hope for Conor McGregor against the boxing legend.
The last man to beat McGregor before Nate Diaz’s victory last year has still yet to agree to a deal with the UFC, and as such, is free to negotiate with alternative promotions. Saturday’s fight with Madadi at the 02 Arena in London was the final fight on his UFC contract, which now makes the Donegal fighter free to look elsewhere for future fights.
On Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Duffy touched upon his current free-agent status and also took the time to answer Helwani’s questions regarding the Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather Jr. super-fight which has been at the forefront of combat sports news for what seems to be an eternity. Tristar Gym’s ‘Irish Joe’ had a run of 7-0 in professional boxing himself, prior to focusing exclusively on MMA. Duffy was asked to give his two cents on the “Billion-Dollar Fight”, and how his fellow Irishman would fare against the boxing luminary:
“I really don’t [give Conor a chance]. I really feel it’s a landslide towards Floyd. He is one of the best of all-time. How he made Pacquiao look, and Pacquiao’s one of the best boxers we have seen in a long time, I think that just proves the level he’s at. [Saul “Canelo” Alvarez] is probably a bigger hitter than Conor and how he boxed him: it’s different. It takes a while to get into the sport and get up to par. I think if he pursued boxing for a long time, he could have done very well in it, definitely. Floyd has been doing this since he was a child and I really can’t see it going any other way.”
Duffy’s sentiments are shared by many observers, who feel that McGregor will be seriously out of his depths, should the fight come to fruition.
