The Notorious reckons that Jospeh Duffy won’t be most well-supported fighter inside the 3Arena on October 24th.
Conor McGregor told Ariel Helwani on a special 300th episode of the MMA Hour that he doesn’t see Duffy as the card’s real main event, despite the fact he’s headlining it with a bout against Dustin Poirier.
“I felt it should have Paddy’s main event or maybe Gunni, but Gunni’s going to be on my card in Vegas. Paddy Aisling and Cathal, they’re the true main events.”
“Joe is not from Dublin, he was born in Ireland, he’s moved to Canada, he was in London, Wales… I don’t know where the fuck he’s from, but he ain’t from here. He ain’t never stepped foot in that arena. He ain’t trained around this area.”
Duffy submitted McGregor with a sublime arm-triangle just 38-seconds into their bout in the European promotion Cage Warriors. He is credited as being the last ever fighter to defeat McGregor inside the cage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjwIZhT5hg
McGregor respects the UFC for, what he feels, is attaching his name to the event in order to hype it up.
“I don’t mind, it’s good business. You sell it as the last guy to beat me and you put him against a guy that I’ve beat and it’s attached to me. Like I said, there’s only one thing you can do when you’re faced with good business, you respect it.”
When asked whether he was surprised that Duffy hasn’t really responded to any of the trash-talk aimed at him, McGregor admitted he was not.
“How can he say anything about that fight when one year after that fight, he got beat and he quit the sport? I laid out the facts of his career already. One year after me and him fought, he was beaten for the Cage Warriors lightweight title and he quit the sport, retired, moved country, changed teams and took up another sport. They’re facts.”
McGregor accused Duffy of using his success in order to carve his own path in the sport.
“Then he sees my success, he sees the Irish success even though he’s off somewhere else. He’s never trained in Ireland in his life and then he sees all of this, then he shaves a shamrock in his head and he calls himself ‘Irish Joe’ and tries to come back and capitalise off of the that and milk that.”
“Now I can’t hate that because, get that revenue, make what you can for your family. I don’t hate that man for that, but facts are facts and that’s the story of his career.”
The Notorious then revealed he asked to UFC brass if he could headline the promotion’s return to the Irish capitol, considering he brought it back to Dublin after a five-year drought in 2014.
“I did ask to be on the show. The reason I wasn’t on the show is because the venue’s too small for me now. The venue’s not too small for me, it’s perfect for me. I would have happily took that main event. I felt I’ve earned the right to say when I want to fight and when I do not want to fight.”
He signed off his piece on the upcoming UFC Dublin card by reiterating his point that their will be a greater atmosphere from the Dublin crowd for the three other SBG fighters on the card, (he left out Neil Seery who’s also on it) than there will be for Duffy’s fight.
“But I’ll take my seat for Paddy’s fight, enjoy the crazy Dublin atmosphere supporting their own, for Cathal’s fight, for Aisling’s fight and then I’ll sit and watch the main event that I have built for them. I look forward to it.”
