Duddy Cut Out of June Title Shot

Irish Voice Sport

Duddy Cut Out of June Title Shot

February 28, 2008

By Declan O’Kelly

JOHN Duddy won a majority decision against Walid Smichet on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in one of the most disappointing performances of the Derry middleweight’s professional career. A serious cut over his left eye means the 24-0 fighter won’t be fighting WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik on June 7, as originally hoped.

In his first fight in New York since last May, there was no evidence of any of the defensive improvement Duddy exhibited against Howard Eastman in December in Belfast. In fact, during the first half of the fight, there was no defense at all, and Smichet (17-4-3) pegged Duddy almost at will.

Duddy simply could not deal with the overhand rights that landed flush, and he absorbed tremendous damage in the early rounds. He neither moved away from the dangerous right handers nor kept his left hand up, and fell into Smichet’s trap time and again.

In the first stanza alone Smichet landed 47 of 86 power punches and 52 of 108 overall. Though Duddy was fighting back, the heavy blows kept landing and were undoing any offensive work from the Irishman. During the third round Smichet looked exasperated that his adversary was still on his feet.

But credit to his chin and heart, Duddy was able to get back in to the fight and dominate the later rounds by using his jab, boxing better and being the busier fighter against a tiring Smichet. Nonetheless, he was still shipping some heavy blows and at the end of the fight his face was a bloody mess, with cuts on both eyes and a nick above the left cheekbone.

The cut on under his left eyebrow required 22 stitches, the cut on his right eye 10 and Duddy needed a butterfly stitch just under the left eye.

Judges Frank Lombardi, John McKaie and Don Trella scored it 95-95 98-92 and 98-92 respectively. How two of the three judges saw Duddy winning eight of the 10 rounds was a little surprising.

When asked if he thought he won the fight Smichet said, “Look at my face and look at his and tell me who won the fight. It was close, but I hit him with stronger punches and came on stronger in the later rounds.”

The Tunisian-born Canadian based fighter went on to say he was happy with his performance and thought he should have knocked Duddy out in the first or second round. “I don’t think Duddy is a real puncher. I did not feel his punches. He did have a better chin that I thought he would. Normally when I hit people like that, they go down.”

Duddy was subdued in victory. “I am glad I won but am disappointed with the performance. I trained much better than I looked in the ring,” he said.

“It was a nice welcome back but is wasn’t one of my better performances. He was one tough mother.”

The second half recovery won Duddy the fight and he remains undefeated, but the display did him no favors in his quest to top the list of likely challengers for Pavlik’s WBO/WBC titles. That Duddy reserved his least impressive performance in some time with HBO present was unfortunate.

HBO boxing analyst

Max Kellerman said during the telecast of the Klitschko/Ibragimov fight that he hoped Duddy-Pavlik was a matchup that would not happen.

It had been rumored that promoter Bob Arum would announce the June 7 title fight between Pavlik (who was ringside) and Duddy at the post-fight press conference. Afterwards Arum had this to say: “I understand the cuts are deep so we are going to have to forget about it. It would be silly for Duddy to rush if the cuts are so bad.

“Duddy can fight Kelly later down the road this year as Kelly is fighting three more times this year, June September and December.”

Arum was frank about Duddy’s showing. “I thought the performance was disappointing, I though it was the performance technically of a guy who was looking past his opponent to the next fight.”

With Pavlik tentatively planned to fight in Ohio in the fall, the end of year date may be the most likely for a rescheduled Duddy/Pavlik bout in New York.

Duddy’s manager Eddie McLoughlin of Irish Ropes was at a loss to explain where it had gone wrong afterwards.

“I honestly don’t know what happened. Maybe he was looking past this guy. I don’t know. I don’t think he did,” said McLoughlin.

“I think that John fought the wrong fight. It wasn’t one of his better performances. He looked very amateurish, and it was a flashback to one of his early professional fights.”

McLoughlin confirmed that the June fight against Pavlik was off the agenda and that Duddy will now take a few months off to heal properly before regrouping and getting back in the gym.

Matchmaker Jim Borzell, who works with Irish Ropes, told the Irish Voice that Duddy left for Ireland Tuesday and would return in about two months to start conditioning ahead of his next fight, tentatively planned for July/August. Borzell also said that Arum guaranteed that the original monetary terms agreed for the June 7 fight would remain the same.

It must come as a massive disappointment to the fighter, his management and fans that the opportunity to copper-fasten a title shot was delayed by the cut and failure to deal with the Smichet one-trick offense. Then again, if Duddy shipped so much punishment against the 57th ranked middleweight in the world, it may be a blessing that they have time to right the ship before seriously entertaining a challenge to Pavlik.

In other news, James Moore and Andy Lee, who both were among the large Irish portion in the 14,011 Madison Square Garden attendance Saturday night, were honored as future champions by the American Association for the Improvement of Boxing at a luncheon last Sunday.

Light middleweight Moore is headlining versus JC Candelo (27-9) in “A Fistful of Shamrocks” at Madison Square Garden’s WaMu Theater on Saturday, March 15 (see ad elsewhere in sports.)

Middleweight Lee (15-0) will headline ESPN’s Friday Night Fights on March 21 against Brain Vera (15-1) at the Mohegan Sun In Connecticut. For Lee ticket information contact Pugnacious Promotions at 518-527-0160 or 518-312-2200.

Light -welterweight Paul McCloskey will fight former world champion Cesar Bazan (46-9-1) of Mexico at the Letterkenny Leisure Complex on Saturday, March 29. The 15-0 Dungiven man will take on Bazan, who has been in with the likes of Miguel Cotto, Jose Luis Castillo and Stevie Johnson, as he steps up his quest to challenge for a European and ultimately World title belts.

Manager Brian Peters has been in preliminary with IBF World Champion Paulie Malignaggi’s promoter Lou DiBella about the two meeting up down the line.

Finally, Providence and Boston and will host St. Patrick’s weekend boxing shows on March 14 and 15 respectively. Previews on both cards will appear in next week’s issue.

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