Flash back to UFC 102, Todd Duffee was a 24-year-old heavyweight monster who just made his UFC debut by knocking out Tim Hague in 7-seconds, a then UFC record. His next fight was the insane war with Mike Russow at UFC 114, that would see Duffee delivered his first loss in stunning fashion after dominating Russow for the better part of twelve minutes. One big heavyweight shot and Duffee was out cold and out in the cold, fired from the UFC.
About 8 months later he signed on with barely a week’s notice to fight Alistair Overeem at Dream 2010, a bout that would be for The Reem’s Dream heavyweight title. It last 19 seconds, and Duffee had suddenly developed a losing streak. Just under two years later, Duffee was able to book his next fight against Neil Grove in the SFL and get back on the winning path, but anyone around him knew that all was not well.
Sure, Duffee is back in the UFC now, but his near 4-year absence from the Octagon was anything but easy. In fact, as the big man puts it: It was a “mind %$*&” which is only slightly more of a mind &*$% than a 25-year-old being on testosterone replacement therapy, but I digress.
Duffee spoke to AboveandBeyond.com and detailed his woes:
“It was a nightmare every day. It was sickening. It was very depressing. It was a giant … oh, I need to find new terminology to describe this. It was a giant mind-f—. I don’t know how else to put it. You see guys that you’re better than fighting in the UFC, you see guys you’re friends and training partners are saying you’re better than fighting in the UFC. I felt really stupid. I genuinely just felt like an idiot. Everybody was telling me I had all this talent but I was never going to be back in the UFC, it’s over. Obviously, I couldn’t let it go. I still believed I had a shot. I still knew how good I am. I’m extensively training with seven of the top 10 guys right now. I have a pretty good idea of where I stand. And I don’t think I’d continue to be willing to make the sacrifices if I didn’t believe I have what it takes to be one of the best. If not the best. It was terrible, dude. It hurt my career. You want to talk about a bad attitude? I definitely developed a bad attitude during that time period. For about nine months, a year, I was hard to be around. I felt bad for the guys at Grudge. I wasn’t positive. I was just grinding through my workouts. There was one point where I would drive to AKA, check my bank account and I would just walk in the gym with tears in my eyes. DC [Daniel Cormier] would come up to me, “Are you alright, dude?” This was because I felt like such an idiot. I should’ve been out getting my college education, going to work. All my friends are finishing up their doctorates — they’re doing all this great stuff that I should be doing. Instead, I’m out here being dumb. Has it paid off now? Yes. I could’ve approached it a lot differently and maybe I’d still be in the same spot. You don’t know. I could’ve gotten here sooner, for all we know. I guess the best way to describe it was that I felt really stupid.”
