Todd Duffee Still Looking for Answers After Being Cut by the UFC

Late last night, news broke that UFC Heavyweight Todd Duffee got cut from the UFC.  For those of us that follow the sport closely, this news came as a bit of a surprise.  Duffee, who is built like Atlas, made a huge splash in his UFC debut at UFC 102, by knocking out Tim Hague in seven seconds (UFC record).  He then was scheduled to face Paul Buentello at UFC 107 but had to pull out due to a back injury.  He finally made his second appearance inside the Octagon at UFC 114 against Mike Russow and was knocked out in the third round after absolutely dominating the whole fight. 

One would think that going 1-1 in the UFC wouldn't be enough to get cut from the top MMA promotion, especially since Duffee was being touted as the next big thing in the UFC Heavyweight division.  Apparently, after Duffee pulled out of his next fight with Jon Madsen at UFC 121 with a knee injury, it was the final straw for Dana White & Co and they release the up and comer.  SI.com's Josh Gross tried to shed some light on the subject via Twitter:

Sounds like accumulation of things led UFC to release Todd Duffee. Overall attitude probably being at the top. Duffee's rep on plane to U.S.

Officially, the UFC told Duffee in an email that he was cut because he lost his last fight, but Duffee doesn't feel like that was the real reason for his release and still wants answers. See what Duffee said after the jump...

Photo by MMA Junkie

From an exclusive interview Duffee did with MMAjunkie:

"I've had every emotion there is to have. Right now, I'm just kind of numb. I don't know what happened. I first heard from my manager, Alex Davis, about a week ago that I might get cut. I have some friends that fight for other organizations, and they actually told me they had heard a rumor that I was about to be released, too. On Tuesday, I got the confirmation email saying I had been cut because I lost my last fight."

"Emotionally, I'm hurt. I'm hurt more than anything because I don't know why. As a man, you just want to hear why so you can understand. They had talked about me fighting Madsen. I asked if I could get some time. I had a knee injury going into the Russow fight. I'm not making any excuses because I lost that fight, and all props to Mike, but I definitely feel like it affected my gameplan and my mentality going into the fight. I didn't want that to happen again with Madsen. I wanted to be able to go out there and fight to my full potential instead of just boxing, basically. I asked for more time, and as far as I knew, they had granted it to me."

All fighters would love to always fight at 100% but that usually isn't the case come fight time.  It is highly unlikely that a fighter goes through a whole training camp without some type of injury but that usually doesn't stop them from fighting unless it is very serious.  One has to wonder if the UFC was angry at Duffee because he kept pulling out of fights or asking for more time because he was hurt and not injured. 

Note to all you young fighters out there.  Once you get to the UFC, fight and fight often because you never know when a message can show up in your email account saying you are cut even if you are being touted as "The Next Big Thing".