Injury jinxed heavyweight fighter Todd Duffee has revealed that he’s still trying to battle back to the Octagon almost four years since his last appearance in the UFC.
The 33-year-old hasn’t fought since a first round knockout loss to Frank Mir back in 2015, which ended a three-fight winning streak.
Since then it’s been nothing but tales of woe for the hulking heavyweight, with recurring shoulder injuries keeping him out of action for a long period of time, while more recently it’s been serious knee troubles that have continued to block his opportunities to make a comeback.
In July of last year Duffee had signalled to the UFC that he was ready to return, but then suffered a freak injury while training with Blagoy Ivanov at ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ gym.
During sparring, Duffee stepped awkwardly against the cage, punctured fence with his leg and as a result blew out his ACL.
While undergoing surgery for that, it was determined that he also needed to have his other knee operated on as well.
To make matters worse, Duffee then contracted MRSA while at home recovering and had to rush himself back into hospital as his health began failing drastically.
“I wasn’t managing well enough, and boom, it just hits you,” Duffee told MMAJunkie Radio. “And it hits you quick. You know it. You get this anxiety over you, like, man, I feel real uncomfortable. I don’t feel good, but you have this inert anxiety, and it hits you fast. You’ve just got to go to the hospital.”
Duffee had to spend time in hospital recovering from the potentially deadly bacterial infection and was then attached to an IV drip for a month while he continued his recovery at home.
Duffee has since been doing physical therapy at the UFC’s Performance Institute and hope the dedicated team of top flight professionals there can help him finally get back to 100%, though he believes he may need another knee surgery before he can achieve his goal and try to make up for lost time.
“At this point, I’m just thinking about my clock. I’ve not had the career that I’ve put the time into. I owe myself 20 more fights, at least. That’s what I want.
“What’s realistic, we’ll see.”
