Three-fight UFC veteran Tom Duqesnoy, 25, announces MMA retirement
A few weeks shy of his 26th birthday, Tom Duquesnoy on Sunday announced he’s retiring from fighting.
In a post on his Instagram account, the Frenchman said he has decided to take his career in a different direction, and that direction won’t allow him to devote his full energy to training.
“I respect the sport too well to practice it halfway and that’s why I’m at a crossroads where it is essential for me to focus on what I am passionate about most,” Duquesnoy posted in his native French (via Google Translate). “It is also the result of a long introspection that was not obvious since it was my childhood dream to fight at the UFC. … This decision is good for me and comes from the heart. So I’m telling you about my official retirement as a professional MMA fighter.”
Duquesnoy (16-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC), who has been fighting out of the JacksonWink MMA team in Albuquerque, N.M., started his pro career 14-1 in fights throughout Europe. In 2014, in his 10th pro fight, he won BAMMA’s featherweight title. He defended that belt twice, then dropped to bantamweight and won BAMMA’s title in that division, as well.
After one defense of the BAMMA 135-pound belt, he signed with the UFC in 2017 and made his promotional debut at UFC on FOX 24 with a second-round TKO win over Patrick Williams. Later that year, he suffered his first loss in four and a half years when Cody Stamann took a split call from him at UFC 216 in Las Vegas.
But in March 2018, he bounced back with a decision win over Terrion Ware at UFC Fight Night 127 in London. That turned out to be his final fight. He was scheduled to return at UFC 228 this past December against Nathaniel Wood, but a rib injury knocked him out of the fight.
All told, the “Fire Kid” wound up with 12 of his 16 career wins by finish, including eight knockouts. The only two losses of his career came to Stamann in the UFC and Makwan Amirkhani in 2013 in his fifth pro fight – the only time he was finished. Amirkhani was in the UFC less than two years later.
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