When the UFC informed newcomer Todd Duffee back in May that he was being bumped from the event in which he was set to make his debut -- in favour of Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic -- he was more than a little disappointed.
"Disappointed isn't even the word," Duffee said. "It was devastating. I walked around in a haze for about a week or two, I really did."
You could say he's been walking around with an entirely different feeling this past week, after he put his name in the UFC's record books with his seven-second knockout of Canadian Tim Hague.
No, Duffee has no complaints at all about how things have unfolded for him the past few months since he joined the top MMA organization in the world. He understands the change the UFC made, to insert Filipovic in the June 13 bout against Mostapha Al Turk after just securing a deal to have the Croatian superstar return to the Octagon. It's simply part of the business.
"The UFC made a smart move," Duffee said. "It's about developing the sport and Cro Cop at that time in Germany is going to sell more tickets, and that's what's more important.
"Yeah it had to happen to me, but looking at it, if it's going to make the sport better, that's fine."
The 23-year-old Evansville, Ind., native, who had only five professional fights to his name before the UFC came calling, said the organization has been fair to him throughout the process. Not only did they hold to honouring his contract, they also paid for him to go to Germany in case a last-minute injury were to befall one of the six heavyweights on the UFC 99 card.
Of course, there's no such thing as a free trip.
"They were like, 'If one of these guys pulls out, you're fighting. Period.' They weren't going to pay me (to go there) for nothing!"
Even though he didn't end up competing, Duffee said the experience of going through the whole "behind-the-scenes" process of the UFC helped him as he prepared to step up to the cage for the first time. Not to mention, if he did end up fighting Al Turk as first scheduled, perhaps he doesn't fight Hague in Portland and doesn't end up going down in history.
But he did, and as they say, the rest is history. Despite the attention his stunningly-swift knockout has gotten -- he said he's done a lot more interviews since the win than he ever expected -- he said he definitely doesn't want that to be his claim to fame.
"Not at all. It's a statistic" Duffee said. "What I did anybody can do. … The record is going to be broke. Soon, I would imagine. Especially now that guys realize that it can garner that much attention."
Duffee admits he never expected the fight to end that quickly. Heck, he didn't really expect the fight to end with a finish at all, considering Hague had never been stopped before -- the Albertan's only career loss was by split decision.
But while he had prepared for a three-round war, he said it was more than just a fluke that his hand ended up being raised in that fashion. He had watched some film of Hague's past wins, and in particular one in which he knocked out a guy in about 10 seconds (Hague knocked out Jared Kilkenny in nine seconds at a KOTC fight in Edmonton in April 2008). Duffee said Hague used the exact same punch in that bout, so he was prepared for it.
"He fakes a right hand, then throws that nasty left hook he possesses," Duffee said. "I didn't know he was going to come out and do it per se, but I'd watched film enough that it wasn't a shock to me."
Following the win, he was comfortably in the driver's seat for Knockout of the Night honours and the $60,000 award that comes with it. But after he watched Nate Marquardt's devastating knockout of Demian Maia, he knew his chances were gone.
"I wasn't surprised (Marquardt earned the award). But anybody's disappointed at that moment. That kind of money is a complete life-changer for someone of my circumstances," Duffee lamented. "But to say I was surprised, no. Of the two knockouts, Marquardt's was way more impressive. So I don't have complaints by any means.
"I thought maybe because it was a record, they might (give out two awards), but realistically, Marquardt definitely earned it."
Duffee, who has yet to earn a nickname, might consider drawing one from what was his theme of the week, that which he proclaimed during his post-fight reaction. In a moment of spontaneous jubilation, he had a message to the camera in the Octagon: "That was all hard work!"
"I knew that I had done everything I possibly could do to prepare for that fight," Duffee explained. "I had maximized my training time. The last eight months I had been living with no cable, no internet. I didn't have any distractions, I was training full-time, all the time. I was training in my head, and I was training on the mat.
"That was really what that reaction was all about, you know that hard work does pay off."
Duffee said he hasn't had the opportunity to speak to either Dana White or Joe Silva about what's next for him, but he expects to in the next week or so. He certainly hopes to, because he wants to get right back into the cage.
Why not, when you've only put in seven seconds of time in the Octagon?
The truth is all fights have ended by TKO, and quickly -- his longest went 1:17 into the second -- and he wants the chance to showcase other parts of his game.
"I'd definitely like to show everybody I can wrestle and I'd definitely like to show everybody I have a submission game," Duffee said.
But don't expect him to change his strategy coming into a fight. Duffee, who considers Canadian Denis Kang one of his role models because he likes like his all-out style, believes that's the way everyone should look to fight.
"(Kang is) one that I really like," Duffee said. "Every time he goes out to fight, he fights. He doesn't pussyfoot around, so to speak.
"I think anybody that doesn't expect to come out in the first minute and be very electric is letting down the crowd. It is a sport, but it's also about entertaining. I think it's our job to go out and look to finish at all times."
