Everyone was wondering what would headline the UFC’s return to Dublin, Ireland, and they had their wish granted earlier this morning as rising lightweight star Joseph Duffy will meet the resurgent Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC Fight Night 77. Here’s the lowdown on the latest fight announcement news which has gone down in the last 24 hours: Joseph Duffy vs Dustin Poirier, UFC Fight Night 77 Duffy’s biggest claim to fame is the fact that he’s the last man to beat Conor McGregor, submitting the “Notorious” one via first round arm triangle choke in just 37 seconds nearly five years ago. Duffy took nearly three years off from the sport after he suffered his first loss to focus on a career as a professional boxer where he amassed a perfect 7-0 record. He was signed to the UFC and has quickly made a good impression with first round victories over Jake Lindsey and Ivan Jorge. Dustin Poirier will be a huge step up in competition for him. Poirier was a contender at featherweight, having put on some of the most exciting fights in the division but he decided to move up a weight class after being TKO’d in the first round by McGregor last September. His move up has been a smashing success thus far as he’s smashed both Carlos Diego Ferreira and Yancy Medeiros via first round knockout and TKO respectively. I would expect Duffy to be a slight favorite due to the Irish hype despite Poirier currently being ranked in the top 15 of the UFC’s lightweight division. It feels like UFC is looking to push Duffy as the next big Irish star in the promotion now that Conor McGregor has established himself. This will be a perfect barometer to find out just how good Duffy is while also findout out whether or not Poirier could be a contender in the lightweight division now that he doesn’t have to cut so much weight and can focus on other things. Thiago Silva out of World Series of Fighting 22, replaced by Clifford Starks Thiago Silva was scheduled to take on Mike Kyle in what was expected to be a very entertaining scrap for WSOF 22 this weekend, but he was pulled from the bout due to his prior issues with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Silva had previously been suspended by the commission for turning in a falsified urine sample for his fight against Brandon Vera and had likely not followed up on his compliance measures to get reinstated. Replacing Silva will be UFC veteran Clifford Starks, who normally competes at middleweight but will jump up a division on short notice. Starks (11-2) is currently riding a three-fight winning streak including a second round submission of Jake Heun at WSOF 19 earlier this year.
