One loss has haunted Conor McGregor more than any other in his career.
Every time Conor McGregor fights, his opponent brings up the same perceived weakness. Before we saw his gas tank fade in both bouts against Nate Diaz, everyone in the Red Panty Night queue thought the quickest route to beating ‘the Notorious’ was by taking it to the ground.
On the first leg of the world tour promoting ‘the Money Fight’, even Floyd Mayweather brought it up. He stood up on that podium in Los Angeles and proclaimed to the world that ‘Mr Tapout like to quit’.
Diaz sinking in that Earth-shattering rear-naked choke certainly perpetuated that theory, Artemij Sitenkov’s kneebar back in the day started it off, but it was Joseph Duffy’s arm-triangle that really saw it gather momentum. On that fateful evening in Cork’s Neptune Stadium on 27 November 2010, this supposed chink in the armour was brought to light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjwIZhT5hg
It was that loss that encouraged McGregor to drop from lightweight to featherweight. It was that loss that kicked off an incredible 15-fight win streak that culminated in a 13-second annihilation of the great Jose Aldo. It was that loss that made him fight like he had a point to prove, and he’s taken pride in proving the doubters wrong ever since.
He’s beat the wrestlers, the jiu-jitsu black belts and successfully exacted revenge against Diaz, but Duffy is quietly rising through the UFC’s lightweight division and McGregor has yet to settle that series. As returning legend Georges St-Pierre explained at the UFC 217 media scrum, he believes Duffy may still have McGregor’s number.
“Joe (Duffy) beat Conor McGregor. He’s coming in force now. He’s amazing. I think he wanted to go and be a champion and get maybe another fight with him. We’ll see what’s going to happen. He looks very sharp nowadays, better than ever and if they cross paths, I think he might beat him again.”
Duffy is 4-1 in the UFC with his sole loss coming to Dustin Poirier not long after he was concussed in sparring. If he keeps doing what he’s doing and McGregor remains active, that’s the rematch to make.
That’s the ‘Croke Park fight’.
