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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Todd Duffee has been relatively quiet since his release from the UFC late this summer, but his name has now come up regarding Saturday's Strikeforce: Henderson v.s Babalu event.
The 6-1 heavyweight prospect, who owns the record for fastest knockout in UFC history, was offered the fight against Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva on short notice this week when Valentijn Overeem pulled out with an elbow injury. But he turned down the late notice fight, according to ESPN's Josh Gross.
Duffee also turned down an offer from Bellator Fighting Championships, according to Gross, and may return to action in a smaller promotion in January.
He was released from the UFC this summer shortly after suffering his first career loss to Mike Russow at UFC 114. He was well ahead in the fight before getting clipped in the third round. He was then scheduled to return at UFC 121, but after an injury forced him off of the card, he was shortly thereafter released.
UFC President Dana White claimed attitude issues came into play on the decision to release Duffee, who was only 1-1 in the organization.
Penick's Analysis: This was a smart move on Duffee's part. There's not a whole lot of upside to taking a fight like this on short notice. Especially when he's been out of action for awhile. Mike Kyle has fought numerous times over the last couple of years and was looking for a fight so he took the spot, and a loss to a much bigger heavyweight won't hurt Kyle's stock much. For Duffee, though, if he has aspirations to return to the UFC, his path outside of the organization will need to be calculated. He could still fight in Strikeforce, and Gross thinks he may wind up signing with the organization sometime in 2011, but there's no need to take a fight against one of the organization's top five guys on a week's notice in his debut.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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