September 2026

A Wild Man for Men’s Mental Health 

The clip of the NT’s Damian ‘Wildman’ Duffy knocking out Nathan Patterson showed up on my feed thanks to us promoting the fight night and I was very glad. Damian looks exactly like a man nicknamed Wildman should: Mohawk, head and neck tattoos, crocodile necklace, the whole shebang. Think Crocodile Dundee meets Chopper. But he preaches uncommon wisdom and drops pearls like a Tibetan monk with an Aussie accent. And he can box, too. At Battle at Yeppoon on Saturday night, Duffy needed just 47 seconds to flatten ‘Paddo’, landing a crisp right hand that left his opponent on the canvas, wide-eyed and sucking air like a landed fish.

Yet Duffy has spoken openly about childhood trauma, addiction and violence, and about the hard work required to stop passing that damage on. He gives young men something the life-sucking algorithms rarely do: proof that strength and gentleness are not opposites. Through his significant social following, he gives guidance to men, especially young men, and delivers solid advice on navigating the pitfalls. His posts are a breath of fresh air to someone who’s watched men drift into strange territory for 20 years.

It is a far healthier model of masculinity than the predatory, dog-eat-fucking-dog gospel pumped out by the worst of the gym, crypto and tech bros, with the Tate brothers squatting at the bottom of that sewer. Wildman’s message after the knockout was simple: don’t mistake kindness for weakness. In his case, nobody is likely to.

Stay strong. 

Todd F. Cole