Conor McGregor news 2016: Awaited rematch with Joseph Duffy imperiled

Dustin Poirier vs. Joseph Duffy[photo: Twitter Screen Capture/@UFC]

Conor "The Notorious" McGregor had rare defeats in his career and one of them was against Joseph Duffy when the two faced off at Caged Warriors 89 back in 2010.

At that time, Duffy hacked out an impressive win in just 38-seconds and prior to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 195, many were angling at a possible storyline which could be of interest to fans since The Notorious did have plans to move up to the lightweight division.

Sadly, all hopes of seeing that interesting fight may have been shelved (for now) after Duffy lost to Dustin Poirier.

It was Duffy's second career loss despite starting off the fight well. It marks a dark day for Duffy who had so far been making a good run since returning to mixed martial arts (MMA). But as fate would have it, Poirier was able to regain his composure and resort to take downs after obviously noting he would not win if he engaged in offensive exchanges.

With that tactic working, Poirier stuck with it and Duffy simply found himself grounded all the way to the final round. And when the scorecards were shown, judges called it all in favor of Poirier.

The win allowed Poirier to snag his third consecutive win while checking Duffy's four-fight winning streak.

However, it is not only his winning streak that was stopped dead on its tracks. Along with it came that dream match against McGregor, someone most UFC fighters want to face off with right now.

A possible match can still happen, although Duffy will have to take the long road back to redemption. The loss may be considered a dark spot in his career for now but hardly something that indicates Duffy is a bad fighter. He just got outwit by Poirier with takedowns, something that Duffy may need to address in his future fights.