10 UFC Fighters Who Lost To Surprising Opponents

While "The Notorious" Conor McGregor is easily the biggest star that MMA has ever known, a lot of people forget just how talented of a fighter he actually is. At 22-5, McGregor has dominated competition across 3 different weight classes. He was even the first-ever "double champ" for the UFC, capturing both their Featherweight and Lightweight Championships. He's a bonafide main eventer, and he has earned that spot.

But he still lost to Joseph Duffy in 38 seconds.

Now, one look at Joseph "Irish Joe" Duffy's record of 16-5 and one might think, "well, surely this can't be all that surprising?" Well, most of his wins came against "complete tomato cans who we've never heard of before" (thanks, Chael Sonnen). Couple that with a subpar record of 4-4 in the UFC, and the shock factor begins to make a lot more sense.

At Cage Warriors 39: The Uprising on November 27, 2010, Duffy defeated McGregor via an arm-triangle choke just 38 seconds in. The loss remains the quickest and most convincing of McGregor's entire career, and he's fought against Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Luckily for Conor, though, his career post-Duffy fight surged in a major way. He began a 15-fight win streak that culminated with him putting the then-unstoppable Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo to sleep in just 13 seconds to capture his first UFC Championship. He's only lost 3 fights in the last 10 years.

Duffy, meanwhile, did...fine. He went 9-5 after beating Conor, but could never really get the job done over anyone of note again. He retired from competition in July of 2020, so it's unlikely we'll see him challenge McGregor for UFC gold someday. Though it would be quite the story if Duffy could choke him out in quick fashion one last time.