That Time Joe Duffy Choked Out a Young Conor McGregor

Joe Duffy laces 'em up this weekend at UFC Fight Night 107 in London. He's perhaps not the most famous guy on the UFC roster, even if he's 3-1 in the promotion and serving as a headliner for the prelims on Fight Pass against Reza Medadi. He's also a pretty exciting customer, owner of a Performance of the Night bonus and participant in a solid tilt with Dustin Poirier at UFC 195 during his UFC career.

Luckily, he doesn't need a push from the UFC or anyone else to be memorable. Why? Because Joe Duffy has a quick, clean win over superstar Conor McGregor, and no one can ever take it away from him.

Back in 2010, McGregor was a 4-1 upstart fighting in Cage Warriors FC. He was predictably brash and self-assured, but he was in the early days of developing the persona that has made him the biggest star in the sport today.

On those terms he battled Duffy in a lightweight bout and—to the surprise of those who know nothing of his work before being the face of the UFC—was convincingly dispatched. As seen in the video below, Duffy easily rag-dolls McGregor, stifles him on the ground and throttles him senseless.

Total time required? 38 seconds.

Of course, iron sharpens iron, you learn more from a loss and all that jazz. The Duffy setback did little to deter McGregor, who went on to win his next 15 bouts in a row.

Still, we'll always talk about that time Irish Joe did a number on Ireland's favorite son.