UFC Releases Heavyweight Prospect Todd Duffee
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Sep 7, 2010 at 7:58 pm ET37 Comments
Heavyweight prospect Todd Duffee has been released after going 1-1 in the UFC, including scoring a UFC-record 7-second knockout of Tim Hague in his Octagon debut last August.
Duffee (6-1) followed up the record win by dominating Mike Russow over two rounds at May’s UFC 114 before suffering a third-round TKO for his first career loss.
He was then booked to face Jon Madsen next month at UFC 121, but was recently forced to withdraw with a reported knee injury and has now been suddenly dropped by the promotion.
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Gonna be some good matches for him at StrikeForce.
Fedor
Antonio Silva
Werdum
Arlovski
that guy who just beat Bobby Lashley
Overeem
Rogers
they would be hiring him because of his looks. because he really doesnt have any quaility wins yet. not saying chad griggs does either. but i dont see him beating any of these seven. ok maybe 50-50 on griggs. and plus people pulling out of fights hits sf alot harder then the ufc. and considering that duffee has pulled out of 2 out of 4 fights, that wouldnt be good for them.
this is werid,,sumthin is up
I’m with you leonor, there’s definitely more to this story.
I notice that Todd Duffee appears on this months Muscle & Fitness, perhaps Dana White was jealous??? Shame to lose another heavy hitting heavyweight.
Him Being On Muscle Fitness Wouldnt Make Dana Jealous And Cut Him. Dana White’s Is Way Bigger Than Todd Duffee Who IMO Was Overrated And Got Hyped Up After That Fluke 7 Second KO. Brock Has Been On M&F And So Has Mir In The Past. Most Likely It Was Issues With Management
heavyweights rarely get dropped by the promotion. look at kongo and hardonk – they lose two in a row and it is no big deal. a middleweight is gone, a lightweight – gone. something is behind this. dont know if we will ever find out but something has to be behind this.
cue scott coker….
ya no kiddin. crazy
Something must have happened btwn him and UFC management. Not sure why they would release him based on performance.
my thoughts exactly, especially because he was just booked for an upcoming fight
Wow this is very interesting! Duffee seemed to be the next big thing in the UFC’s heavyweight division and now they just drop him. Bellator and Strikeforce are going to have a battle to get him now. We’ll have to wait and see if it was an attitude problem or he was just too much money to be on the injured list.
WOW this is from left field. He was like a young Lesnar type. And we know how much u guys like Brock, so this is very suspicious. We need dude from Fanhouse.com to investigate. He might have needed extra cash for the long layoff, who knows. UFC only takes care of the really big names. Go ask Joe Daddy!!
As far as the “Joe Daddy” part of your comment, even he has admitted that he has turned down private insurance, also I guess Thiago Alves’ Brain Surgery wasn’t ZUFFA taking care of their fighter, nor was paying for Coery Hill’s multiple surgeries and Hill wasn’t a contender or a “big name” furthermore he no longer is even employed by ZUFFA…
Now to get back on topic this is what Josh Gross has about the situation
From Twitter:
“Sounds like accumulation of things led UFC to release Todd Duffee. Overall attitude probably being at the top. Duffee’s rep on plane to U.S.”
Also:
“Quote from Duffee’s manager Alex Davis. Great one. Via text: “Well, I’m not sure exactly what the problem or problems were.I tryed [sic] …”
+:
RT @KevinMarshall @SI_JoshGross Has he been turning down fights? … I wondered the same. Source said “it’s complicated.”
We all should know more in the next few hours or so perhaps not even til tomorrow.
Hmmmmmm….
Insurance isn’t that expensive for Zuffa to pay for – it just isn’t. Corey Hill’s injury happened at their event – they had a choice but to pay. If they tried to weasel out of that (which would have been disgusting, to say the least) it would have been a 1 hour court battle that even the most junior lawyer could have won without breaking a sweat. Anyway…
There is a huge gap in what NFL players (even the minimum is twice as much as 90% of the guys in the UFC get and the guys never get on the field during a game), MLB players and NBA players get. They all get insurance – even after they are done playing. They also have a union – a strong union.
Let’s say you were a fighter who took some big shots competing in a UFC event. You hear later that The Fretitas (however you spell) it – sent a check of $1 million dollars to one of their sisters (if the have any) – who didn’t know the event was happening because they are trying to share the wealth with family (as most family businesses do) and the event that you fought at was such a success and besides how much money do they need? Only so many things to buy and vacations to take. Their grandkids’ grandkids will never have to work. And YOU DON’T HAVE INSURANCE. Would you be upset?
The difference between other leagues/sports and the UFC is the type of contracts involved. The other leagues specify that the players are employees of the league/team and get all the benefits of what was bargained between the union and the league. The UFC signs players to personal services contracts. What the contractors choose to do with their money is their own business. Some, like Joe Stevenson choose not to get insurance, not because they can’t afford it, but because they choose not to. Everyone who fights in the UFC can afford it. Between their UFC paychecks, sponsorship monies, deals with gyms, owning gyms, etc, they make more than enough to get by. Unless they’re stupid with their money which is a “them problem”, not a “UFC problem.” How much money the Fertitas and Dana White take home is irrelevant because in the end, the responsibilities of the organization are on them, not on the fighters. If the business goes underwater, they are the ones who lose money, not the fighters. They can sign with other organizations and get paychecks from somewhere else. Quit throwing red herrings out there in the hope that a penguin will eat it.
Just to clarify the organizations are required to purchase insurance for events by athletic commissions. That’s part of the licensing of all events. What happens outside of the events is not in the realm of the UFC. It involves their people yes but if you want to bring up other sports the NFL is actually the same way. If a player is hurt with a private trainer then the club is not obligated to pay his medical expenses. Matter of fact if complications even arise with players after they retire they haven’t been liable to pay under the current CBA.
Which leads me to my next point… comparing these sports on just about any level is irrelevant because most major sports are unionized due to having to deal with multiple franchise owners. There aren’t multiple franchise owners in MMA.
Why?
That came out of no where…
Definitely file this for now under “to be continued”…
Very surprised to hear this, figured the next fight would be a true tell of the type of fighter he is. Can’t make any assumptions but with his popularity and upside, it has to be something money or attitude related.
This probably has nothing to do with it and just coincidence but while at the expo in Boston, twice I saw Duffee walking around and both times I noticed he was kind of shrugging off fans and autograph requests. Maybe he was just coming from long sit down sessions or on his way to the next one but the behavior was abnormal compared to the other fighters and the general UFC attitude of fans come first. I know there’s probably a thousand fan photos with him and even more autographs so please don’t attack me for my story. This was just an observation I made at the time and wonder if something like this contributed to his release.
Of course we have zero to go on as of this posting, but IF, and its an admittedly big if at this point, but if Duffee were somehow not treating fans right at the Boston expo, I could absolutely see Dana White ordering him cut loose ASAP upon hearing about it.
Sure, DW loves him some HWs, especially ones he thinks can go, but he can’t stand fighters not doing right by the fans.
Consider that in comparison a guy like Anderson Silva, who catches a sizeable amount of sh!t at this site from some posters, myself occasionally included, has never been known to be anything but cool with fans and go out of his way to do the right thing when asked for an autograph and/or pic.
If a champion like Silva isn’t busting out a diva-tude with the fans, then where the He11 would Duffee get the idea that he could do it and still keep his job, again assuming the Boston expo is a factor…
What happened at the Boston Expo??????
@jawbreaker – there are a lot of rumors in the wind right now, but one of the prevalent ones, and again, these are largely unsubstantiated rumors, is that Todd Duffee wasn’t “playing nice” at the Boston Expo, and gave off a vibe like he was not happy to be there.
Dana White tolerates a lot of different sh!t from a lot of different fighters, but not doing right by the fans isn’t one of them.
Its entirely possible the guy’s attitude got him released, or its something else or a combination of factors yet to be made public that led to his release…
Very interesting and suprising news. It would be wrong to speculate but there obviously more to this than meets the eye.
For every match Todd Duffee had in the UFC, there was a match he had to pull out of due to injury.
UFC 102 – the record KO.
UFC 107 – was to face Paul Buentello, but had to pull out due to a back injury.
UFC 114 – THAT Mike Russow match.
UFC 121 – was to face Jon Madsen, but had to pull out due to a knee injury.
So maybe that has something to do with it? Maybe? I mean it’s not like UFC doesn’t have injured fighters – or even injured champions. But it does suck. So maybe Dana just went “oh I see where this is going” and cut him for that…? Just speculating here, but that was the first thing that came to mind.
Also flipping trough Wikipedia I came across this:
“Duffee is currently looking for a new gym after being accepted into University of Nevada-Las Vegas for its spring 2010 semester beginning in January. He is looking into Xtreme Couture or Wand Fight Team.”
That is old news, so I have no clue why it’s still there, but it made me wonder. I mean maybe this guy’s some sort of jerk and he can’t get into a decent camp? Or did he find a good camp? Just speculating here, but you gotta start throwing theories out there for this bizarre cut. Or maybe his head ain’t in the fighting game, but rather the studying? Maybe?
I know I’m looking way too much into this, but like I said, this is bizarre.
I was sitting on the floor at UFC 118 in Boston right next to the section where Todd and other UFC/WEC fighters were sitting…he didn’t seem very happy to be there…didn’t look very friendly when people approached him. We shall see…hopefully!
Wow!!! All this from one loss & getting injured, Seriously? When you have Fighters like Kendall “The Spider” Grove who is not really keeping up with anyone still fighting for the organization… Why not make an example out of them? I am all for the (Can’t keep up with the BIG DOGS, then go to another organization deal) but Todd Duffee? Come on!
Nowhere does it say that he was cut for his performance. There could be any number of other reasons, as outlined above.
Releasing Duffee is ridiculous. He couldn’t fight a few times due to injury but UFC kept pulling him from cards when he was ready and eager to fight. Duffee is a great fighter;one of a few HWs who may actually be able to give fighters like Lesnar and Carwin a decent challenge. You make a great point about fighters like Grove who will never be serious challengers in their divisions yet who are kept by the UFC. Dana White seems to believe he can continue ditching good fighters like Duffee, Dan Henderson, Paul Daley (who should have been punished severely but not cut)and others and still remain on top. He has even (insanely) thrreatened to cut Anderson Silva and for what? He mocked some of his opponents who behaved stupidly themselves? It’s noteworthy that Strifeforce, while light years behind the UFC with regard to the number of fighters and events, apparently pays their fighters more and draw hug numbers on network tv without even charging for their events. Things are always changing. The UFC may be on top now and while I’m glad that it is, White could ruin it much more easily than it might appear.
Thats rough…I know his last fight was kinda bad but I thought with a little more cardio he could be back quick. Oh well its like somebody already said enter Scott Coker lol
third round “tko”? hardly, it was just about as KO like as it gets
Check this link for a good article on this (Including Duffee’s reaction) Interesting how the walking papers cited the loss to Mike Russow. First thing I thought when reading this update was that the last I heard of Duffee, he took a movie role in Never Back Down 2. Wonder if that played a role also somehow…..
http://mmajunkie.com/news/20561/todd-duffee-ufc-release-caps-off-good-run-of-bad-luck.mma
Next time, make sure you include the http:// part and it will link. -BSBiz
Also, for the sake of thread discussion, lets assume for a bit that Duffee’s release was attitudenal in nature, and not medical and/or performance-related.
I’m not 100% sure that either Sf or Bellator, both of which do their best to steer clear of deliberately p!ssing Dana White off, is going to leap at signing Duffee.
If I had to guess, and if he’s cleared to fight, I’m thinking Duffee’s next appearance might be in Shark Fights?
Or overseas in that Aussie MMA sideshow known as Impact FC?
Roids maybe?
If it was medicinal, that would have come out in one of the post-event drug screening releases. If he wasn’t tested then, no one would know and he wouldn’t have been released.