Donegal fighter Joseph Duffy suffered his first defeat in the UFC with a unanimous decision loss to Dustin Poirier in an entertaining lightweight bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas last night.
Duffy (14-2), who inflicted featherweight champion Conor McGregor's last professional defeat in 2010, suffered only his second career reversal at the hands of the American McGregor beat at featherweight in 2014.
Poirier (19-4) hasn't lost since facing McGregor and moving up in weight and won a fight which was rescheduled after Duffy was forced to pull out of an October meeting in Dublin, with judges scoring the fight 30-27, 30-27, 30-26.
The fighters traded furiously early on in the first round and though Duffy rocked Poirier with a strong right, the American managed to take him down and follow up with a damaging elbow.
#TheDiamond making it rain early! #UFC195 https://t.co/tPpXJcjJbc
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Duffy came out swinging at the start of the second but was taken down again a minute into the round and suffered further punishment until the horn.
Poirier maintained his successful takedown strategy in the final round, inflicting further blows and escaping an attempted leg lock and later triangle choke attempt from the Irishman.
Poirier revealed after the fight that Duffy had broken his nose in two places with one of those early shots.
“My nose is crushed, for sure. When I touch it, it feels like a broken light bulb," he said.
“I didn’t want to make it a boring fight by grinding it out but I couldn't breathe at all. Joe hit me with a lot of punches. He had a lot of volume but not a lot of power.”
On the main card of UFC 195, welterweight champion Robbie Lawler retained his title on a split decision (48-47, 48-47, 47-48) against fellow American Carlo Condit.
