MMA Sun 2015 Prospect Spotlight – The Featherweights – #1 – Tom Duquesnoy

January 13, 2015 by Jason 12 Comments

The top featherweight prospect for our 2015 Prospect Spotlight is none other than France’s Tom Duquesnoy. The “Fire Kid” is one of the best and most talented young prospects in the world. At just 21-years old, Duquesnoy is competing at a high level already. he is the current BAMMA Featherweight champion and appears to have all the tools to be an elite fighter. If people were to ask me right now, what young prospect stands out, Duquesnoy would be one of the first names that would come to mind. Tom has an impressive 9-1 career mark, with his sole loss coming to recent UFC signee Makwan Amirkhani.

Duquesnoy is a very good all around fighter. He is skilled in all disciplines. In the striking department, he mixes things up very well. He does a good job of throwing hard counters and he is very effective when moving forward and being the aggressor. He also does a good job covering up and keeping his hands high to protect himself. He also does well moving his head off the center line when he throws punches. Some of those defensive techniques are neglected by many of our prospects, but really can be a difference in winning and losing. One of the more impressive things is the diversity of his attack. he mixes in punches from range, counters, knees, solid kicks and shots from the clinch. He also has shown that he has power in his punches and I believe his power is improving.

Duquesnoy is very confident in his ground game. He has good takedown defense and he is often able to dictate where a fight takes place. His wrestling is not dynamic, but he can hold his own against most fighters. His top game is strong and he seems to have good positioning. He has brutal ground and pound. He just seems to have a sense for spacing and when to throw. In his lone loss, two years ago, Duquesnoy showed a very good jiu jitsu game at times. He threatened with an armbar, pulled guard and landed a nice sweep before a mistake caused him to get caught in a D’Arce choke. When he captured the BAMMA title he showed off his skills off of his back, winning via triangle choke in one of the more spectacular transitions you will see.

I do not have enough superlatives to throw upon this kid. He gets better and better. He is a savant…a prodigy. He just seems to see things in the cage that others do not. He is well rounded. He can strike and hurt you on his feet with powerful punches or crisp combinations. He can submit you off his back. Duquesnoy is scheduled to defend his BAMMA title on February 21st. I cannot imagine the UFC would want to delay in recruiting this kid’s services much longer.