Joe Duarte (born August 4, 1983) is a retired professional mixed martial arts champion and investor[1] from Guam, and is of native Chamorro descent.

Duarte made his professional mixed martial arts (MMA) debut as a light heavyweight on September 9, 2006 at "Total Combat 16: Annihilation" in San Diego.

He is the sole Unleashed Fight Lightweight champion with his first-round rear naked choke submission victory over Ulfrano Rodriguez on March 22, 2008.

Considered exhibition contests, the fights on TUF are not reflected upon a professional fighter's official record and thus Duarte remained undefeated in professional MMA competition (at that time) and improved his record to 4-0 with another submission victory over Pierre Dumont at "Colleseo Championship Fighting II: King of the Streets" on October 24, 2008.

[4] On May 30, 2009, Duarte earned his fifth career victory with a first round TKO stoppage of David Gardner in the WarGods promotion held at the Viejas Casino in Alpine, California.

With less than a week's notice, Duarte was to take on former collegiate wrestler Carey Vanier in the quarterfinal round of the Bellator Fighting Championships lightweight tournament.

Duarte controlled much of the stand-up battle and consistently made the scramble back up to his feet after several takedown attempts by Vanier.

Varnier eventually worked into the side control position and continued to rain down punches before the referee called an end to the fight at the 4:14 mark in the third round.

Headlining as the Lightweight Main Event of the evening at the Pearl at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Duarte squared off against Brazilian Jiu jitsu black belt and UFC veteran, Jorge Gurgel.

The fight was an excitingly rich stand-up battle with Duarte and Gurgel eager to square up in the middle of the cage trading blows.

On July 14, 2012, Duarte made a return to competition after almost a year long hiatus due to injury in the preliminaries of Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Kennedy held at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon.