The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 158: Cowboy vs. Gaethje

#1 Worst: The weird ending to Duffee vs. Hughes

Todd Duffee's fight with Jeff Hughes ended in unfortunate fashion

As a fan of Todd Duffee dating back to his win over PRIDE veteran Assuerio Silva way back in 2008, I was pumped to see him return last night in a Heavyweight clash with Jeff Hughes. But while the fight was exciting for the 4 minutes that it lasted, the ending proved to be the low point on the card overall.

Both men landed some big shots and had the other rocked, but it seemed like Duffee was on the verge of a win after knocking Hughes down with some heavy punches. A clinch followed, though, and from there Duffee apparently took a thumb to the eye – at least, that’s what the replay suggested – and after time was called, the doctor judged that Duffee was unable to continue and stopped the fight.

It was good to see the correct decision – a no contest – called by the referee, but Duffee has already come under criticism from online fans as he essentially told the doctor he couldn’t carry on. To me that’s nonsense – if he was seeing double why would he risk his sight? – but it was still disappointing to see his big return end like this.

Sure, he was still fighting in an incredibly reckless way – winging hooks with zero defence for the most part – but even at 33 he’s one of the more impressive athletes at Heavyweight and so to have him back is nice – just not when his fight ended like this. Let’s hope he’s back sooner rather than later this time.