Joe Duffy has done things his own way. Conor McGregor may use it as a stick to beat him with but you have to respect him for choosing his own path, training in Canada and still coming back to headline a UFC card in Ireland. Granted, concussion may have put paid to those hopes but it's still testament to Duffy's potential to reach the very top.
Or, if you believe Conor McGregor, Duffy's rise to the top is testament to Conor McGregor and everything he has done. In reality there's probably a bit of truth to both of those possibilities. Duffy has the talent but McGregor, not only opened the doors for Irish MMA but blasted them off the hinges. And it's fair to say that the Dubliner won't let Duffy forget that fact.
McGregor was speaking to independent.ie on Friday and he continued to stick the boot into Duffy in the aftermath of his withdrawal from UFC Dublin this weekend.
They think they can do what I do until it's time to do what I do. They should have given me the fight instead of trying to go roundabout and have me sell the fight without me even being part of the fight. I show up, I compete and I win.
But it was his assertion that, were it not for all the 'bullshit', he would love nothing more than to rock up to the Three Arena on Saturday night and headline the card that is most interesting.
McGregor let everyone know he was ready to step in as soon as the news of Duffy's withdrawal broke. In reality, we all knew that was never going to happen but it seems the interim featherweight champ was very much serious.
It would have been amazing to go in there in two days time and fight with none of the other bullshit. Just roll up there and weigh in and get paid? That's what I want to do. If there was none of the other shit and I just show up, weigh-in and fight, I’d wipe out the whole roster in four months.
It must be said that 'the other bullshit' is what has promoted McGregor to where he is in such a short time frame. He does the bullshit better than anyone else but, at the end of the day, he's a fighter and there's no doubting that if he was allowed he'd be in that Octagon on Saturday night.
