UFC 195 results: Dustin Poirier stays strong at 155, dominates Joseph Duffy in bloodbath

Dustin Poirier

LAS VEGAS – Dustin Poirier came up short against Conor McGregor at featherweight, but at UFC 195 he dominated the last man to beat the featherweight champion, taking a unanimous decision win over Joseph Duffy in an entertaining battle.

The lightweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC 195 event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims on FOX Sports 1 and a main card on pay-per-view.

The men came out throwing heavy shots early before Poirier (19-4 MMA, 11-3 UFC) let loose with a heavy leg kick. Duffy (14-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) answered moments later with a nice combination of punches before the men briefly exchanged heavy punches and Poirier backed him off with a series of solid shots.

Poirier landed a nice shot with his right hand, only to eat a big return punch that left him stunned against the cage and covering up as Duffy landed several nice shots. Poirier survived and again began to land good punches, this time while holding Duffy’s head with his left hand. With Duffy’s nose bleeding, Poirier ducked under and dumped him with a takedown near the 2:00 mark of the opening frame.

Poirier popped up and cracked Duffy with ah heavy elbow before the men rose back to their feet. A right hand from Poirier, who was dealing with his own bloody nose, left Duffy with swelling around his eye as he walked back to his corner at the end of the round.

A Poirier takedown attempt early in Round 2 was defended well by Duffy initially, but persistence led to the fight having been put on the mat. Poirier, with nose pouring blood, looked to work position as Duffy sat up against the cage. As Duffy attempted to rise to his feet, Poirier moved into a better position and began to throw elbows once again.

Poirier amped up the ground and pound a little bit as Duffy looked to get back to his feet, but the damage absorbed led to increased swelling on both eyes. Poirier spent the rest of the frame dropping heavy punches and elbows on the bloodied and swollen face of Duffy.

Duffy attempted to open the final round with aggressive strikes, including a head kick that was blocked. Moments later, however, he was on his back again with Poirier trying to advance his position and drop heavy strikes once again. Duffy attempted to switch to a heel hook after a kneebar attempt failed, but Poirier defended and ended the scramble back on top. Despite the positioning and active work from both fighters to advance their position, the referee stood the fighters up with slightly over a minute left in the round.

Duffy landed hard to the body and uncorked a heavy uppercut, but Poirier put him right bak on the floor and threw a heavy elbow. Duffy locked up a triangle choke in the final seconds of the round, but there wasn’t enough time for him to finish the hold before the horn signaled the end of the bout.

The official scorecards read 30-26, 30-27 and 30-27, all for Poirier, who is now riding a three-fight winning streak since moving to lightweight. Duffy’s second career loss snapped his four-fight winning streak.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 195 results include:

• Dustin Poirier def. Joseph Duffy via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
• Michinori Tanaka def. Joe Soto via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Sheldon Westcott def. Edgar Garcia via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 3:12

For complete coverage of UFC 195, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Steven Marrocco contributed to this report on site in Las Vegas.)