Joseph Duffy suffers agonising TKO defeat to James Vick

Joseph Duffy put up a good fight in New York, but he just came up short.

Donegal native Joseph Duffy suffered his second UFC loss at the heavy hands of rising lightweight James Vick on the UFC 217 preliminary card. Duffy started the fight well, edging a closely-contested first round. Both warriors were trading evenly on the feet, with Vick utilising his reach advantage well to keep the Irishman at range. Vick hit the mat three times in the opening frame, first after being tripped off a caught kick before immediately crumbling from a leg kick. Duffy also secured a brief takedown at the fence towards the end of the round. Vick came out the aggressor again at the start of the second. Duffy was able to dodge most of the early exchanges and fired a high kick that was partially blocked. However, Vick took up residence in the centre of the Octagon by utilising his huge wingspan. Duffy was competitive until the closing seconds of the round when he was dropped by an uppercut. Vick hammered him with a ground and pound until the referee stepped in with less than one second left until the buzzer sounded. https://twitter.com/UFCEurope/status/926990132535635968 The result snaps Duffy's two-fight win-streak and leaves him with a record of 17-3. It was only his second loss inside the UFC's Octagon, the first being a decision to Dustin Poirier at UFC 195. Meanwhile, Vick has improved his record to 12-1 (8-1 UFC). He is now riding a three-fight win-streak.