A day after heavyweight Todd Duffee (6-1) was officially released from his Ultimate Fighting Championship Contract, the fighter still isn’t certain of the reason for his dismissal.
Duffee talked to MMAjunkie.com from being released after only one loss.
“I don’t know what happened,” Duffee told MMAjunkie.com from the hotel room in Denver that he is currently calling home. “I first heard from my manager, Alex Davis, about a week ago that I might get cut. I have some friends that fight for other organizations, and they actually told me they had heard a rumor that I was about to be released, too.
“On Tuesday, I got the confirmation email saying I had been cut because I lost my last fight…”
“Emotionally, I’m hurt,” Duffee said. “I’m hurt more than anything because I don’t know why. As a man, you just want to hear why so you can understand…”
“I’ve lost a lot of things this year,” Duffee said. “I went from losing the biggest fight of my life to losing my dad two weeks later to losing my best friend a week after that. I lost a coach, and now I’ve lost my job. At this point, it isn’t the worst thing that could ever happen to me. There are people who would kill to be in my situation, and I just have to stay positive and keep moving forward – tuck your chin and keep moving forward.
“I think the best is yet to come. I think this is a part of it, and we’ll just kind of see what happens. In five or six years we may just look back and laughing about this. That’s my goal…”
“I know the UFC is running a business, and they’re going to do what’s best for them at the end of the day. I’m not going to harbor any hard feelings or anything like that. I’m just going to roll with punches. It’s been a year of a lot of tough losses, but I think you grow from that. It’s been a good run of bad luck. I’m just trying to stay positive and learn from these life experiences.”