As Joe Duffy prepares to fight tonight in Swansea, Fergus Ryan takes a look at how difficult it can be to switch disciplines from MMA to boxing and vice versa.
By Fergus Ryan
The biggest rivalry in combat sports today is the between two factions rather than two fighters, with fans of boxing and MMA arguing how a boxer would do in MMA and vice versa.
While some boxers have crossed over to MMA with limited success, we’ve yet to see a top notch MMA fighter go the other way.
Technically, the jump from MMA to boxing would be a curious decision as striking is only one aspect of MMA. A good striker in MMA may only be an above average boxer partly because an MMA fighter must train in many other disciplines. Mainly however, the threat of a ‘takedown’ (being wrestled to the mat) means a fighter can never get totally absorbed into the striking aspect of a fight.
In Swansea tonight Joe Duffy plans to shock the world, or the boxing fraternity at least, by making the jump from being a highly touted MMA prospect to becoming the next big thing in European boxing.
Born in Donegal and raised in Wales Joe began martial arts training at 5 with Tae Kwon Do. He progressed to traditional jiu-jitsu and made the jump to MMA by the time he was a teenager.
The decision to leave MMA was not due to lack of success. Joe turned professional in 2008, winning his first 10 fights and becoming the stand out lightweight fighter on the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship.
In his 11th and final MMA fight to date, Joe lost in a title fight to a gritty Italian veteran. This appeared to be the catalyst for change but the time needed to rehab a broken hand probably had more to do with the switch from MMA to boxing than suffering his first loss.
“While I was waiting for my hand to heal I had plenty of time to think long and hard about it. The decision to switch suited me personally more than anything” explains Duffy.
Rather than walk away from MMA, Joe had initially planned to make the move to the US to train under Greg Jackson, who is probably the top coach in MMA today.
“To get ready for the change I moved from Wales to the MMA Clinic in London. After a while in London it made me I realise I couldn’t afford to make the move to the US. The boxing coach at the MMA Clinic, John Tandy had suggested I give boxing a try and if it didn’t work out I could always go back to MMA.”
Though he’s not yet 40, Tandy has been a long time in the boxing game at the highest level, having spent time in many of the leading gyms in the US alongside the likes of Freddie Roach. If you consider that seven of Duffy’s 10 MMA victories came by way of submission it makes it even more surprising that Tandy would feel Joe’s hands were good enough to make the transition to boxing.
With the broken hand healed, Joe began his boxing training in earnest in April 2012. Progress was swift and within a short space of time Tandy felt Joe should be sparring with championship grade boxers. Passing every test with flying colours Joe found himself across the ring from an Olympic gold medallist.
“John had been building up the spars over time. I’ve sparred with Georges Groves and Chris Eubank Jnr. and John wanted me to get in with a southpaw so that’s when I started sparring with James DeGale” said Joe.
For a fighter who’d spent less than a year properly training in the ‘sweet science’ this may have been a step too far. Not so! According to DeGale, working with Joe was mutually beneficial for both fighters.
“I was finding it hard to get good sparring and Joe has been giving me some great spars. He toughs it out. Some guys will do a really hard one and then they don’t wanna know after that. Joe has no quit. People are gonna be shocked at how good this guy is” gushed DeGale.
So taken was DeGale that he feels Joe could be destined for greatness – “He’s a really nice guy, an absolute gentleman. He’s really ambitious and he’s got a big heart. I can definitely see him winning British and European titles soon and there’s no reason why he couldn’t go all the way.”
DeGale’s assessment is consistent with Joe’s ambitions. “My goals are always the same no matter what it is – to be the best at it and to perfect my execution of it. I’m taking one fight at a time and fingers crossed, I win my debut on Saturday. I want to have fought and won ten times in 2013. If I can achieve that I should be looking at British and European titles in 2014. If I can do that then a world title would be next.”
Joe Duffy wishes to thank Intensiti Fighter Management, his sponsors London Fight Store, and all his coaches at the Boxing Clinic.
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