Todd Duffee’s first fight in over four years tonight at UFC Fight Night 158 ended in a disappointing no-contest in the opening round after he couldn’t continue following an accidental eye poke from Jeff Hughes.
Round One:
Duffee bursts forward early in the round with straight punches and then a hook. Hughes backs away, but then Duffee drives in for a takedown against the cage.
Duffee brings Hughes to the mat, but he stands straight back up against the cage. Duffee stays in the clinch. He lands a knee to the body and then wings some big punches. Hughes lands a single counter.
Duffee showing plenty of offense, but not much defense with his striking here. He throws another flurry of strikes and then settles for the clinch.
Hughes reverses the position. They go back to striking range. Hughes clocks Duffee with a good punch that backs up the bigger man and leaves him bleeding below his eye.
Duffee resets but then lands a good punch of his own and has Hughes in trouble. He survives though and still seems calm.
Duffee blasts him with kick and punches that put Hughes down again. He gets back up and hangs on in there, landing a punch and then they clinch up against the cage.
Hughes seems to graze Duffee’s eye as he pushes his head away in the clinch and that forces a stoppage.
Duffee tells the referee he’s seeing double – not a good idea if he wants to keep fighting. He asks the ref for some time, but he’s made it obvious his eye isn’t right and so the official calls in the doctor to look at him.
The doc asks about his sight and again Duffee asks for some time, but then the official tells him he can fight on for now he immediately confesses he’s still seeing double and the fight is waved off.
As a result of the eye poke the fight is declared a no-contest at 4.03mins of Rd1.
